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Two People Dead, Eight Wounded In Michigan Church Shooting And Fire; New York Mayor Eric Adams Ending His Bid For Re-election; Trump Sending Troops To Portland To Protect ICE Facilities; White House Has 21-Point Plan For Gaza; End Of Dial-Up. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired September 28, 2025 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:02]

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN HOST: All right. Let's get some happy news in here. New today, congratulations are in order for singer and actress Selena Gomez. Gomez married record producer Benny Blanco yesterday. The couple exchanged vows during a private ceremony, according to Gomez, who announced her marriage on social media. The newlyweds have been together since 2023, but they actually met in 2015.

Gomez and Blanco even released an album together earlier this year titled "I Said I Love You First." Love that. Congrats to the happy couple.

And this now, take a trip around the world with Tony Shalhoub to discover how bread connects us in the brand new CNN Original Series, "TONY SHALHOUB BREAKING BREAD." It premieres next Sunday, October 5th at 9:00 p.m. on CNN. I'll bring the olive oil. Love it.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

FREEMAN: Thanks for joining us this afternoon. I'm Danny Freeman sitting in for Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin this hour with the breaking news on that mass shooting in Grand Blanc, Michigan, where police say a 40-year-old man opened fire while hundreds of people were worshiping. Now we're getting information that a second person has died. At least eight others were wounded. Authorities believe the gunman also set the church on fire before getting into a fatal shootout with police. And we're now hearing audio from the first responders who arrived on the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trapped in the building. Repeat. People trapped in the building. We got children inside, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Let's get right over to CNN's Julia Vargas Jones who's been following this story all afternoon.

Julia, what more can you tell us? JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Danny, that second victim

we had been reporting that some of those injuries were quite serious as those 10 people had been taken to hospital. Among those injured, we know there are children now. We do not know the age of this person. The second person who died today. We do know that some two, at least two area hospitals have received some of these patients. One of them was on lockdown up until 1:00 this afternoon because of how close it was to this active shooter situation.

Earlier today a second one, the Hurley Medical Center, the closest trauma center, they're saying they also received five different trauma victims there. And some have now been taken to other area hospitals. All of this, as we have heard from authorities, they are expecting more victims as they make their way through the scene.

I want you to hear from the police chief how that scene played out. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF WILLIAM RENYE, GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP POLICE: He rammed the vehicle through the front door, exited, then started firing shots. We are still trying to determine exactly when and where that fire ended up coming from and how it got started. So we believe it was deliberately set, though, by the suspect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Now, two details that I'll add to that statement from the chief, Danny. One of that is that weapon that he was using was an assault rifle later, the chief clarified, and also that authorities have located a suspicious item on the property of the church that they believe could be an explosive device.

Now, the key question here is when was that device set out? Was that a place at the church before the attack that happened at the same time? And is that what was responsible for that large fire that has caused authorities to say that they expect even more victims from this attack?

Danny, now, police are saying that investigators will now carry out a search warrant at the residence of the suspect, a 40-year-old man of the area, Michigan, and what they're looking for here is a motive. Now they did not give any clue to what the relationship was from that suspect to the church at this point. That remains unclear, but I will point out that just yesterday, the church did lose their leader, the president. Russell M. Nelson died at the age of 101.

Perhaps I would wonder if there were even more church goers in that service that started at 10:00 a.m. this morning because of this tragedy, but without a question, a double tragedy for this community as they come together to mourn the loss of their leader. And now of all these members of this community in Michigan. They did issue a statement earlier today.

I want to read that to you from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints, saying, "A tragic act of violence occurred today at a chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan. During Sunday worship services, a gunman opened fire and early reports indicate that multiple individuals were injured. We ask for cooperation with local authorities as details become available. The church is in communication with local law enforcement as the investigation continues and as we receive updates on the condition of those affected. We offer thanks to the emergency responders who are assisting victims and their families."

[16:05:02]

Now, we also have heard, Danny, as we mentioned before, from the president, some words from the governor of Michigan as well. And we will expect more details to come in the 5:00 hour when the news conference is expected.

FREEMAN: Yes, hopefully more answers to come in just about an hour when that news conference begins.

All right. Julia Vargas Jones, thank you so much for your reporting.

To get some more perspective on this, let's bring in retired FBI supervisory special agent Jason Pack.

Jason, thank you for joining us on this very, very troubling and sad and horrific story. From your perspective what are the steps investigators are taking right now to try and determine what may have caused this man to do this.

JASON PACK, RETIRED FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Well, Danny, I just can't imagine what that congregation in that chapel felt this morning. You go into your safest place, their most vulnerable place just to worship and then five minutes later, your whole world is upside down. So that's what the FBI, the Michigan State Police, the local township police, all the authorities that have gathered, the ATF, are going to be taking a look.

So they made some progress. They know what happened. They know who did it. And now that big question of why is what they're looking at. You've seen them -- you've seen the bomb technicians and the bomb robots there. They have to treat this place like it's booby trapped. So you're really investigating several different types of scenes here. You have a homicide scene. You have an arson scene.

You have what may be a hate crime or a domestic terrorism things. You have to take all those things into consideration when you're processing the scene to look for clues like that and see if any of those evidence, pieces of evidence are present there.

FREEMAN: Well, I'll just explain to our viewers while Jason was talking there, we actually saw what appeared to be a robot of some sort going on to a property in that area of Grand Blanc Township, Michigan.

I mean, can you speak to just -- it's been fascinating because it's not just a mass shooting. There's this fire element. There's clearly concern about other potential devices in the area. How challenging does all of that make it for investigators to piece together what happened here?

PACK: It's very challenging and very risky at the same time. The person who did this, you just didn't wake up this Sunday morning and say, I'm going to go do this. That pathway to violence, as the FBI says that radicalization pathway or pathway to violence, there's the planning and there's the preparation, and there's the implementation after the ideology starts.

So that planning maybe, you know, he left no stone unturned in this particular thing. He had three backup plans. He had the shooting, he had the fire and perhaps an explosive device there. So law enforcement has to slow things down, methodically clear this residence to make sure there are no booby traps and no other surprises waiting for them inside the door. That's going to delay things to get to the answer to that why.

FREEMAN: Can you talk a little bit about this more just because you mentioned it earlier? But when you're looking at something like an attack on a church while, as law enforcement folks said, potentially hundreds of people were worshiping, does that -- does this make it clearer that this could be potentially domestic terrorism or a hate crime? Do all of these factors play into something like that?

PACK: I think you have to keep your aperture very wide at the beginning of these types of investigation, Danny.

FREEMAN: Sure.

PACK: For sure, I mean, it looks like it, right? So there's a reason that this person chose a church. They chose a church when there were people in it. And so that maybe go -- that might go to part of that grievance or some other part of the things we just don't know about yet. Again, it is pretty early in the investigation and hopefully at this 5:00 press conference with the update, we'll learn a little more. But we have to understand that these things take time. And though we want a lot of answers and we want to surely pray and help those folks who are grieving in this community, these answers may come more slowly than the community would like.

FREEMAN: Yes. Well said. And again, we're praying for those who are injured and hoping that that death toll does not continue to go up. Two people killed, though, as we know, confirmed now.

Jason Pack, thank you for sharing your expertise as always. Appreciate you.

PACK: Thanks, Danny.

FREEMAN: All right. We're following more breaking news here in New York City. New York Mayor Eric Adams is ending his bid for reelection. Adams had been campaigning as an independent and was showing well behind other candidates in most polls. Meanwhile, former governor Andrew Cuomo, who's also running in the race as an independent, praised Adams for putting the well-being of the city first. CNN's Gloria Pazmino has been following this entire story from the

start of this election to now.

How does this really shake up the race for mayor here in New York?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Danny, you know, really the biggest question right now is whether or not this is going to do anything to help former governor Andrew Cuomo. That is essentially the theory behind this, that if Eric Adams dropped out from the race, support for Andrew Cuomo would coalesce behind him, helping him to eventually defeat Zohran Mamdani in the upcoming general election, which is in November.

The problem with that theory is that Mamdani has only been growing in support in the last round of polling. Andrew Cuomo has been polling second behind him.

[16:10:01]

The Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa, who is still in this race, is polling in third, and Eric Adams was polling in fourth. Now, Eric Adams had been facing a lot of pressure, both publicly and internally, to drop out of this race from people here in the city, including the city's business and real estate leaders, who felt like if the vote was fractured between him and Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani was likely to win the election.

So we heard about his reasons for dropping out in a video he posted to social media earlier today. He also specifically talked about the difficulty that he's had in the last few months to mount a campaign because he has not been able to raise money. He's blamed the media in part for that, for undermining, using his words, undermining his campaign, saying it made it difficult to raise the dollars that he badly needed to put up a fight.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS, NEW YORK: I cannot continue my reelection campaign. The constant media speculation about my future and the Campaign Finance Board's decision to withhold millions of dollars have undermined my ability to raise the funds needed for a serious campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Now, Danny, we should mention that over the last several weeks, we also reported about President Donald Trump's involvement in this race, trying to influence the outcome of the election. We know that Eric Adams met with one of Trump's senior advisers, Steve Witkoff, about potentially offering a job in the Trump administration, something that Eric Adams denied in recent days.

But we do know from our reporting and from talking to my sources that the mayor had been looking for an off-ramp in order to leave this campaign. He doesn't have one as of right now. He will serve out the remainder of his term until the end of the year becoming once again a one-term mayor as the city's second black mayor. So certainly not the way that Eric Adams wanted this to end. But we see him saying that he believes this is the best decision for the future of the city -- Danny.

FREEMAN: The race for New York mayor winnowing down.

Gloria Pazmino, thanks so much for that report.

And to this now, President Trump is once again deploying troops to a U.S. city, this time Portland, Oregon. On Truth Social, the president said he was authorizing what he called full force in Portland if necessary, claiming the city is war ravaged and that immigration facilities are under siege by antifa and by what he calls domestic terrorists.

Now, this all comes after Trump deployed troops to Los Angeles back in June, and Washington, D.C., last month.

Kevin Liptak joins us now from Washington.

Kevin, tell us, what else are you hearing from the White House about this new initiative?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And the White House says that this is necessary given some of the acts of violence that have occurred outside this ICE facility. That's about two miles from Downtown Portland. There have been arrests for arson, for assault, essentially saying that they need to get things under control.

But I think it's also been clear that this move came as something of a surprise, both to officials inside the administration, but also to officials in Oregon. The state's governor said that she first learned about this from social media when the president posted about it. She worked to get President Trump on the telephone and told him that Portland was doing just fine, that she made it clear to him that their city was, in her words, a far cry from the war ravaged community that he's posted about on social media.

And so I think in a lot of ways, this is shaping up to be something of a test case for the president. You know, he's been going after for the last several weeks these left-wing groups like antifa, which is the anti-fascist movement. The president has designated them a terrorist organization, and he referenced them specifically in that post yesterday.

I think the president is also holding up Portland as something of an example. This is a city that's, of course, been a bastion of liberal politics for a number of decades. It's been a hotbed of protests. And I think the president wants to use it as something of an example as he continues and escalates his efforts to use the U.S. Military on domestic soil.

Now, there's still a lot of unanswered questions about how all of this will proceed. For example, we don't know when it's going to happen. The president didn't lay out a timeline, and he also didn't specify what types of troops he would be activating here, whether it's National Guard or active duty U.S. Military. And he also didn't lay out the legal rationale because you'll remember the law sharply limits use of the U.S. Military for law enforcement purposes on domestic soil. So a lot of unanswered questions here.

Just one final thing. This move by the president will be a backdrop when he speaks to generals and admirals next week in Virginia.

[16:15:02]

This was the gathering organized by the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. We learned today that the president will be speaking there as well. And certainly his moves to use the military on American soil, very much at the forefront of those -- of that gathering, I think.

FREEMAN: Fascinating. All eyes on the Pacific Northwest and, of course, on that generals' meeting.

Kevin Liptak, thanks so much for your reporting. Appreciate it.

All right. Still to come, we're tracking the newly named tropical storm Imelda. How it will potentially impact the southeast coast with heavy rains and whipping winds, and how the much stronger Hurricane Humberto will impact it. We have that story.

Plus, President Trump plans to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu tomorrow as they try to work out an end to the war between Israel and Hamas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:20:28]

FREEMAN: We're following breaking news on Tropical Storm Imelda that formed near the Bahamas earlier today. It is the ninth named storm of this Atlantic hurricane season, and while Imelda is not expected to make landfall, the storm is threatening to bring flooding, rain and strong winds to coastal areas of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

CNN meteorologist Chris Warren has been tracking the storm.

Chris, what do folks in that region need to know right now?

CHRIS WARREN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We still can't rule out some impacts, whether it is heavy rain and some localized flooding or even some strong gusty winds and near tropical storm force conditions. It is expected to be a hurricane.

But, Danny, we often talk about how when we're looking at the forecast, especially in the tropics, we say how things can change for better and for worse. I want to show you how it worked out for the better, at least this point right now. So here's the forecast and what we're looking at going forward. Still expected to strengthen as it moves north over the Bahamas, where it will bring tropical storm force conditions by either late tomorrow night or into early Tuesday.

It is expected to be a category one hurricane and remain so for the greater part of the week, right through Thursday morning and then still a tropical storm and even a hurricane as it moves away from the U.S. But I want to show you, if you look back just a couple of days how that forecast can change, if you remember on Friday, Friday evening, everything was in play. And even then we were saying, watch, things can change.

There's a lot more model runs can come in. And as those model runs came in, the forecast got updated and it's the trend that you look for. So these are the forecasts between then and now. And you can see how it changed. And that's why trends are very important when it comes to forecasting going forward. And this is one of the tools that are used for forecasting. And these are the spaghetti models. Different forecast models.

And now there's not a lot of outliers. There's a lot of agreements. You have a lot of, say, computer experts if you will. And they all agree on what's going to happen. It's going to give you more confidence to believe in what's going to happen. Part of the reason why Imelda is moving out is the fact that Humberto was so big, so strong, you can kind of see that by Tuesday afternoon. They even kind of share some of the atmosphere here where some of the isobars, lines of equal pressure kind of come together and you kind of see how it essentially follows the stronger one out to sea.

Sometimes these storms as big and as strong as they are, they can affect one another. It's rare to get them especially this close to each other. But in this case you can see one goes, Danny, and then so does the other one.

FREEMAN: That's good. You know, we were hoping for this and we're glad that it's going that way. But still people should take it seriously because there may be lots of rain.

Chris Warren, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

And still to come, President Trump plans to meet with Israeli President Netanyahu, Prime Minister Netanyahu, I should say, on Monday. The big talking point is expected to be Trump's proposed plan to end the almost two-year war between Israel and Hamas. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:27:45]

FREEMAN: We have more breaking news this hour. White House special envoy Steve Witkoff is set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today in New York. That's according to two people familiar with the meeting. Netanyahu also expected to meet with President Trump at the White House tomorrow.

Now, President Trump says a peace deal for Gaza is close to being finalized. The 21-point plan includes a ceasefire, the release of hostages and a proposal for post-war governance. With us now is CNN political and national security analyst David

Sanger. He's also "New York Times'" White House and national security correspondent.

David, good to see you on an important weekend. So it appears Arab countries in the region seem to be on board with this plan so far. But what's your perspective? Can President Trump get Netanyahu to sign on?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think there are two questions. One is, will the prime minister sign up? And I suspect he will because he's betting that Hamas will not, and he'll be able to continue his operation in Gaza City.

As you said, it's a 21-point plan. But the first point is that Hamas releases all 48 hostages, about 20 of those are alive, and the remainder, sadly, are not. At that point, Hamas has got no leverage left and very hard to understand why they would do that if they think the Israelis would then turn around and eviscerate the leadership in Gaza City, which is what's going on now. We're at a point where 90 percent of Gazans have been displaced in some way, whether humanitarian crisis is huge, and there's nothing in the plan that addresses ultimately a Palestinian state the discussion all last week at the U.N.

FREEMAN: Well, meanwhile, some Arab countries appear to be suggesting that any Israeli annexation of the West Bank would be a deal breaker for this agreement.

Can President Trump, though, keep Israel or Netanyahu from doing that?

SANGER: Well, it's going to be one of the interesting questions here. The president was pretty clear last week. He said, I will not allow them to annex the West Bank, basically saying this conflict can't spread further. But I think Prime Minister Netanyahu has rightly figured out that President Trump is not really interested, very much, in enforcing past commands of what Israel would or would not do. So, I'm not sure how seriously he will take that. Perhaps, he'll take it quite seriously.

[16:30:22]

And, second, the president himself moves, oddly enough, from sort of an observer status, saying, this isn't my conflict. He says this about Israel and Gaza. He says it about Ukraine, with Russia. To episodically trying to go directly insert of (?) himself.

So, he kind of ping pongs between these two positions and it's not clear, right now, how committed he is to making this work.

FREEMAN: Yes, that's well said. It seems that there are times, again in both conflicts, where he seems to enjoy being mediator in chief, and others where he, again, likes to back away when things get tense.

I'm curious, David, though, can you shed any insight onto what a postwar Gaza might look like? I know we've heard reports that U.K. prime -- the former prime minister of the U.K., Tony Blair, could play a role in some sort of governing authority. What more are you learning?

SANGER: So, some of the proposals that are around -- you know, initially the United States, under the Biden Administration, said the Palestinian authority should run it. And Netanyahu rejected that. And, certainly, the Palestinian authority has had its challenges running what it's doing right now, including in the west bank.

So, then, there's been thoughts about having a sort of technocratic government set up with the aid of some of the Arab states, overseen, as you said, by Tony Blair and this group. But unclear exactly what the relationship of that would be to the Palestinian authority. How many of those people would be Palestinians themselves. And whether or not they would be willing to be governed that way.

I think that prime minister Netanyahu, based on his previous statements, would tell you that Hamas would be a threat to such a state, and he'd have to go out and wipe out the Hamas leadership anyway to avoid it from toppling any authority that that wasn't them.

FREEMAN: All eyes are going to be on a very, very consequential meeting at the White House tomorrow for this conflict. David Sanger, thank you so much for sharing your expertise. As always, appreciate it.

SANGER: Thank you.

FREEMAN: All right, we have a quick update for you now on that breaking story of a mass shooting at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan. Police now say two people died after a man rammed his car into the front doors and then opened fire, while hundreds of people were worshiping. Children are also among the injured.

Now, authorities believe the gunman also set the church on fire before getting into a fatal shootout with police. We'll, of course, keep you updated on this breaking story as it develops in the hours to come.

And a press conference will be at the top of the hour. We'll, of course, bring that to you live as soon as we have that signal up.

OK. Still to come, more after a break.

[16:33:10]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FREEMAN: That just brings me back. If you were a -- of a certain age, shall we say, that sound, of course, is familiar. You know it. It's the sound of AOL dial-up Internet service. And it's about to evaporate into the ether. So sad.

The company is ending the dial-up option after more than 30 years. The curatorial director of the Internet history program at the computer history museum, Marc Weber, joins us now.

Marc, say it ain't so. It's going away. What does that mean? MARC WEBER, CURATORIAL DIRECTOR, INTERNET HISTORY PROGRAM AT COMPUTER

HISTORY MUSEUM: Well, you won't be able to dial up anymore. You'll have to go in by broadband or on your phone. So, if you have a modem, you might have to get rid of it.

FREEMAN: Wow, I'll have to change my entire life. I mean, you know, because I've been using dial up this whole time.

OK, for those of us who -- for those out there who might not know what that dial-up sound meant, though, to millions of Americans, put it into perspective. What a phenomenon it really was in the 1990s and 2000s.

WEBER: Sure. So. AOL was, you know -- well, back in the 1990s. By the mid-1990s, people were hearing all about the Internet superhighway, information superhighway, the Internet. The world wide web was exploding. Very much like A.I. today. So, it's all over.

But a lot of people had never actually gone online, and they had no idea how to get online. So, first of all, if you had a computer, even then you still needed a modem until about the mid-1990s. Most didn't come with it. So, you needed to buy this expensive gizmo and hook it up, figure out how to use it. It could be a lot of work.

And then, who are you going to dial into? What are you going to do with it? So, you had a -- you know, your choice was either track down a local Internet service provider or a bulletin board service, which could be small mom and pop, not necessarily geared toward a novel (?). Or you might have had one of these discs in your mail. Your physical snail mail from AOL. Like these nice little packages with a floppy disc or later a CD.

[16:40:03]

WEBER: And AOL, literally, was using half the world's capacity to make CD-ROMs, at the time, for these discs. There were millions of them. It was a huge budget item for them. But they figured it was worth it.

So, you could pop this disc in your computer, and it would make it much easier to connect. And then, you're on this -- you're at AOL which is a kind of safe environment. You've got mail. You've got chat. You've got all these things.

And if you wanted to dip your toes into the wilds of the Web and the Internet, by 1995 or 1996, it came with a browser and you could do that.

FREEMAN: Right. Right.

WEBER: It was a great intro.

FREEMAN: No, no. And I appreciate it. You know, it's so funny, too, because I -- you know, I remember, again, you know -- after that point, you know, if somebody picked up the phone, right, or if, like, you had the fax number or something like that, it would totally screw up any ability to get through to the Internet. Can you just, though -- can you run us through the pop-culture aspect as well? How AOL and that dial up service made its way into popular programs, movies, et cetera?

WEBER: Well, something they had done long before, in the 1980s, they decided to put sounds on different things. So, there's you've got mail. And that was the husband of an employee of AOL. It was a broadcaster. And they did the door opening and door closing for aim, for the instant messaging.

FREEMAN: Yes.

WEBER: So, it just made it totally memorable that, you know, there's this sound. It's visceral.

And, of course, some of you -- some of the people who are old enough will remember seeing "You've Got Mail," a very famous film that took that and made it the basis of a romance.

FREEMAN: Well, that's what I was going to say. I mean, "You've Got Mail," the movie, I mean, it came right out of that. And a hit film, of course.

Is that you've got mail announcement probably also going away with the dial up? That voice recording that you noted.

WEBER: Boy, you know, I -- that's an excellent question. I had not thought of that.

FREEMAN: Yes, the sound --

WEBER: That's really sad if they do.

FREEMAN: -- the sounds of the 1990s and the early 2000s. You know, that's the question. And I'm sure it's all in a safe somewhere.

WEBER: Oh, boy.

FREEMAN: Well, lastly, let me ask you this.

WEBER: That's (INAUDIBLE.)

FREEMAN: Let me ask you this. How might this affect people, though, who might still rely on Internet service through a landline? Because, according to a recent census, that's still over 100,000 people.

WEBER: Sure. Although not all of them are on AOL. Some are dialing up on other things. I read 168,000, something like that. Even if they are inconvenienced now, you know, it is going -- copper wire for your telephone is going away. And a lot of places you can't get a landline anymore or they won't maintain it.

So, basically, they were already going to have to do something. They'll have to, you know, get home broadband, like through their cable company, or the phone company will offer some kind of other broadband. Or, you know, today, really, the need has gone away for people with a -- with a smartphone. Because in the 1990s, everyone had a landline. Cell phones were rare. So, that was the lowest common denominator. The easiest way to connect.

Now, it's your cell phone. I mean, unless you purposely get, you know, a feature phone, a flip phone, they all come with some sort of data connectivity. So, that's kind of become the default.

FREEMAN: Well, it's a darn shame, but we'll all have our memories. Certainly of not just that horrific sound at the top, but also of you've got mail. Mark Weber, thanks so much for your time. Appreciate it.

WEBER: Thank you.

FREEMAN: All right. Still to come, we'll have the latest on the potential rout at the Ryder Cup. A live report from Bethpage Black. That's coming up straight ahead.

[16:43:59]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FREEMAN: It is the final day of play at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. And the Americans started the day in a pretty tough spot. But after quite the shellacking from the Europeans leading up to today, team USA is mounting, as I understand, a possible comeback.

CNN World Sports Anchor Don Riddell is at the course. Don, thundering hooves from team USA. What can you tell us?

DON RIDDELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is yet another absolutely extraordinary day at the Ryder Cup here at Bethpage Black, Danny. Yes, the Americans are mounting an extraordinary comeback.

At the start of the day, they were seemingly in a completely impossible position. They were seven points down. No team had ever come back to win from more than four points down.

So, I think the last time you and I spoke, we were saying, if the Americans can pull this off, it would be the greatest comeback in all of sports. And when I said that, I didn't think it was going to happen. I didn't think there was any chance of it.

But just look at what's happened. Cameron young, the home favorite, Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele all winning their matches. Bryson DeChambeau coming from five holes down in his match to take a half point. They're really, really pushing the Europeans and making it an incredibly anxious afternoon for the European team.

Now, at the start of the day, the Europeans only needed two points to tie, which would retain the trophy two and a half to win it.

[16:50:00]

RIDDELL: They've managed to find one and a half points so far. So, the Europeans are just half a point from safety, one to win it.

But there's a lot of red on the board. And there is an awful lot of anxiety out there amongst this European team and these European players, at the moment. And I think the Americans can really sense that they could be on the verge of something absolutely epic.

I've said it so many times before. The Ryder Cup is my favorite event by far in all of sports, because it is so compelling, so dramatic. Even when you think it might be over, it may very well not be.

And to be in the position last night and this morning, when everybody was riding off the Americans chances. It just didn't seem as though they had a prayer at all.

And now, it might happen. It might not. But it might. And it'd be pretty amazing if it did.

FREEMAN: All right. Well, fingers crossed. I mean, listen, you were talking about the beatdown at Bethpage yesterday. Hopefully, it's back in the game at Bethpage today.

Don Riddell, thanks so much. Really appreciate it.

RIDDELL: All right.

FREEMAN: All right, we'll be right back.

[16:51:07]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FREEMAN: In recent months, Harvard became ground zero in America's culture wars. In his upcoming documentary for "The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper," CNN's Omar Jimenez takes us inside the clash between the Trump Administration and the country's oldest, richest and most prestigious university, as part of the next "Whole Story with Anderson Cooper." Omar has a preview.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When it comes to showdowns, especially in the education world, it really doesn't get bigger than this. We are talking one of the world's most prestigious and powerful universities up against, arguably, the world's most powerful government. And the implications of what comes out of this is going to be felt for a long time on a number of different fronts.

Now, one of the initial pushes here that the Trump Administration has done is they have pushed and frozen federal funds, from Harvard in particular, under the -- under the directive of trying to fix anti- Semitism. And under a wider push to fix the culture at Harvard.

Now, a federal judge recently ruled that the Trump Administration can't do that and that the over $2 billion in federal funding that was frozen needs to be reinstated. The judge actually wrote that it's difficult to conclude anything other than the Trump Administration using anti-Semitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically- motivated assault on this country's premier universities. That said, when we spoke to folks on campus, that's students and professors, they didn't shy away from the fact that there are ideological or balance issues on campus and issues that have been there for a long time. It's part of what we found in this documentary.

But also take a listen to some of what the people we spoke to told us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: How do you see that diversity of viewpoint? Is that still an issue?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it is an issue. And I think you learn the most from being exposed to ideas that make you uncomfortable, not from being exposed to ideas that confirm your prejudices.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The issue definitely lies more with the faculty. Nobody's going to give you an F because you took a conservative viewpoint. But they might give you a bad grade for not understanding something the way they did.

And I think that there are more conservative students than people realize. I think they're just quieter because there is that fear that if they express their political beliefs, it might be damaging for jobs, or, you know, they might say something controversial, get canceled. Things like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Students repeatedly report that they self-censor their projects, their essays, the things they say in class.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just more guarded. I was in a club, and I just didn't tell them I was going to Israel. I was really scared to say anything, because I was worried that would change how they'd feel about me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've definitely lost friends, because they've discovered that I have certain beliefs, or because of things that I've said.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: And that last student, Eli (?), actually told us that he actually believes there is a good conservative community on campus, but among the students. He believes it's the professor ranks that needs real reform. And that's what contributes to some students choosing to censor themselves, at least some of the students we spoke to, as well.

But also, there are a lot of interesting things we heard, too, including the fact that international students. Another group that we spoke to said that no matter how this ends with the Trump Administration, that the lasting impact here is going to be fear.

And by that, the student told us that he meant that, at any point, visas could be revoked. That, at any point, there could be a push to ban international students from coming, which the Trump Administration tried to do earlier this year. But that was also struck down by a judge.

So, it's not so much the point that these things happened in any substantial way, but the fact that they could happen on such a short notice, and that student told us that that dynamic is already reverberating, at least with friends he has around the globe.

So, another dynamic to watch. But, of course, a very big showdown that we have not seen the end of just yet. And we explore all of it in this documentary. I encourage you all to take a look.

Back to you.

FREEMAN: Thanks so much, Omar. You can watch the premiere of Omar Jimenez's report on "The United States Versus Harvard" at 10:00 p.m. Eastern tonight. Thanks so much for that.

And thank you all for joining us this afternoon on a very, very busy news day. CNN NEWSROOM continues with Jessica Dean right now.