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Nor'easter Thrashes East Coast With Strong Winds, Coastal Flooding; Hurricane Nolo Expected To Bring Heavy Rain To Hawaii; Trump Rejects Iran's Latest Proposal To Reopen Strait Of Hormuz; Trump, Xi Meet At The White House; White House Bars CNN From Covering Trump On Air Force One; Could Redistricting Fight Backfire On Republicans?; 41st Farm Aid Benefit Concert Kicks Off At 7:00 P.M. ET. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired September 26, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

[16:59:49]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Pope Leo actually attended the World Series the last time the White Sox were in it but that was way back in 2005, way back when he was known as just Robert.

But pay attention to the storyline. That was a real, real turnaround for the White Sox.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

All right, everyone. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Omar Jimenez in New York.

We're going to start this hour with the breaking news.

Three major storms hitting the northeast United States, Hawaii and off the coast of Mexico. The northeast is facing an early season Nor'easter. We are talking heavy rain, wind and huge waves like what you just saw hit, basically the roof of that home there.

But it's also causing flooding and some beach erosion as well, impacting tens of millions of people from Virginia to New Jersey and all the way up the coast, as far north as Maine.

Tens of thousands of customers are without power, as almost 2,000 flights are delayed and more than 420 canceled.

And then all the way over in Hawaii, heavy rain from Hurricane Nolo is ramping up with potentially life-threatening flooding and mudslides. This is Hawaii's third dangerous brush with a hurricane in just six weeks.

Also, Category 5 Hurricane Polo is still roaring off the coast of southern Mexico and is expected to make landfall in Baja California Sur on Monday.

There, we've got dangerous surf and rip currents expected along portions of the northwest coast of Mexico for the next several days.

A lot of weather to look at, and a lot of different places. But let's start with how this Nor'easter is hitting the northeast.

CNN's Danny Freeman is in in New Jersey for us. And meteorologist Derek Van Dam is in Massachusetts.

Derek, you look like you're dealing with a lot of wind. We're going to get to you in one second.

Danny, I want to start with you first. What have you seen there? And what are you seeing now?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Omar, I can tell you, we also are dealing with what feels like an intense pickup in wind over the past hour or so, as we get closer to nightfall here in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

So many parts of the Jersey Shore have experienced flooding throughout the day.

But now, as the governor of New Jersey says, were in a bit of a lull before the next part of the storm comes.

But let me just show you this right here, Omar. This is the debris that has been covered all over this area of the boardwalk. This was all in the water, the sea debris, and now it all has been washed up here.

And as you can see with this wind, it's carrying here -- it's carrying out here very much so. Also I'll note that this whole area, Omar, just a few hours ago, this whole street was flooded.

But the main risk that we've been seeing here all along the Jersey Shore, and especially in this part of Atlantic City, has been tidal flooding. Tidal flooding has been the main risk.

So when the tide came in and was high tide earlier this morning at around 8:00 a.m., then that whole street, this whole area got wave after wave of seawater coming in and really impacting these communities.

Now the tide has gone out, and it's been amazing walking around. I mean, areas where we saw cars that had to be abandoned are now totally bone dry.

But officials here in Atlantic City and across the state of New Jersey, especially in those eight coastal counties where there's still a state of emergency, they are warning that later on tonight, when the tide comes back in, the risk for flooding is going to come back as well.

And you can see this is the water right here. It's still very choppy. It's still very intense out there on the water. You can still see plenty of debris as the birds (ph) get moved around.

And as we've been out here, Omar, the water has been creeping back in. 6:00 is the time that officials here are looking at potentially a bad time where the flooding can come back in because of this tide coming in. And then 8:00 tonight, that's when the tides are expected.

But you can see these seawalls here, Omar. They're starting to get battered again. We've been here for the past 24 hours, and we've seen when the high tide comes in, these seawalls absolutely get hammered with intense, powerful waves. And were likely going to see that again tonight.

So what officials here in Atlantic City and really all across the Jersey Shore, they're telling people, if your car was out here before, get them out, get them to higher ground because the flooding is going to likely come back in just a matter of hours, Omar.

JIMENEZ: Something to watch as the day continues.

And Derek Van Dam barely holding on to his hat out there in the wind and rain in Massachusetts. Can you just give us a sense for what you are feeling? Because it looks like a lot right now.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Omar, we've got a new slug of heavy rain and a slug of very intense winds. So much so that I had to bring out some professional equipment for this hit because we're regularly clocking tropical storm force winds, so sustained 39 -- 40 mile-per- hour, consistently.

[17:04:52]

VAN DAM: Remember, a tropical storm is 39 miles per hour.

But this is not a tropical system. This does not have a name attached to it. There is no hurricane even though when you look at the satellite loop, it looks like a hurricane.

You go on social media. There's a lot of discord right now going, you know, meteorologists and people -- experts saying, hey, is this a tropical entity or is this a classic Nor'easter?

And there is some real science behind that that I won't get into, and I won't bore you with the details. But we're splitting hairs here because the impacts are the same, right.

These wind gusts are so intense that it's getting the taste of sea salt with the Atlantic Ocean directly behind me. But it's also accelerating these drops of rain.

Are you guys ok? Yes. All right, be careful. Don't go any further than this. That's very dangerous.

There's a lot of onlookers that will come out, and people from Scituate, Massachusetts, who have been through these powerful coastal storms before.

Our photojournalist, you know, excuse us. We're in the middle of some pretty intense conditions. Obviously, he's going to wipe the camera lens to keep this visible. And I hope that that microphone is protected in a way.

But this just shows you the fury of this Nor'easter and how the power of this long, incredible fetch (ph).

I just lost my AirPods. Ok, CNN, you're going to owe me some new AirPods on that one.

Look, it feels like the backwash of a jet engine. Ok, so we're getting these accelerated particles of rain from the rain bands. That slug of rain that's caused a flash flood warning to my south.

But it's also stinging my face and almost like a -- like Mother Nature, giving us a kind of a freak-face facial, right? Like scrubbing my face with this intense, almost pinpricks all over our bodies.

So needless to say, this storm has packed a punch. And all along the coastline, anywhere from where the Atlantic Ocean meets the land from southern New England all the way to coastal New Jersey. Those coastal communities are feeling the brunt of the storm as it backs up into the catcher's mitt of the tri-state area.

I mean, you just look at the topography and the geography of our coastline here across the Eastern Seaboard, specifically near Long Island, down to New Jersey and into the outer cape of Massachusetts, where I am.

And it is just in a bad, precarious position for a storm of this magnitude and this intensity backing up and moving west, getting a long duration northeasterly wind that's clearly clocking over tropical storm force, pushing up the water from the Atlantic Ocean, and driving in the water through multiple high tide cycles.

That's why we have coastal erosion. That's why we have coastal flooding, and that is why we have power outages, flight cancellations, events that have been canceled or postponed or delayed.

This is treacherous weather, and this storm system is disrupting plans for millions of people. Over 40 million Americans impacted by this Nor'easter.

Omar, I may have been wrapped a long time ago because I can't hear the control room, so forgive me.

JIMENEZ: Yes, yes. No, Derek, we got you here. One I'll back you up on expensing that AirPod, we saw that play out live.

But also the character we've been talking about the winds throughout all of this, but to hear it and to see that reading of tropical storm force winds of what you are dealing with out in coastal Massachusetts, this is the seriousness of the conditions here, as we've been seeing as Derek is going to show us one more reading there. What are you seeing there?

VAN DAM: Just getting readings right now. My, this is a professional anemometer, ok. So are we getting blocked by our photojournalist? So let me just put it here. 32 miles an hour right there. 38 -- it's intense.

JIMENEZ: Yes, very, very intense. Derek, stay safe. We'll continue to monitor the conditions at your spot there.

Our thanks to Danny Freeman as well in New Jersey.

We want to take you all to the other side of the country, quite literally, in Hawaii where new video shows strong waves crashing into the shoreline on the Big Island where Hurricane Nolo is expected to bring its worst.

You see some of the conditions there. People are preparing for potential devastation, but those in Nolo's path were battered by Hurricane Lala just a few weeks ago.

Storm chaser Jonathan Petramala took this video, for example, and he joins us now. So, Jonathan, one, what is the weather like right now? What are you seeing?

[17:09:47]

JONATHAN PETRAMALA, STORM CHASER: Very calm. And that means a lot of people are breathing a sigh of relief here on the Big Island.

Because just what they went through a month ago, as you mentioned, with Hurricane Lala, it dumped several feet of rain here on the Big Island of Hawaii.

And unfortunately, in the southern part, there was some catastrophic flash flooding, a lot of debris, boulders that swept through the town over there. And this time they thought it was going to be the same situation, different storm, same amount of rain, catastrophic flooding.

As of just a couple of days ago, the forecasts were showing over 40 inches or more of rain falling right here in Hilo on the eastern side of the Big Island of Hawaii.

So there was a lot of concern with Hurricane Nolo. But fortunately, what that hurricane did and why I'm dry right now, why Hilo Bay behind me is very calm is that the hurricane made a westward turn.

And it made it far enough south that all that flash flooding, that heavy, heavy rain stayed offshore. And it didn't make it here to the Big Island.

So instead of seeing a repeat of a disaster that happened just last month, instead we saw those big waves. That's the biggest impact so far we've seen from Nolo fortunately. Just the really large waves crashing into the coastline here on the eastern side of the island and the southern side of the island.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

PETRAMALA: So people really going to say they dodged it with this one.

JIMENEZ: You know, you were alluding to it a little bit earlier. I mean, this is Hawaii's third hurricane in six weeks at least that has gotten very close and has brought a variety of conditions because of it.

Hawaii doesn't feel like the place where you're dealing with hurricanes at the pace that we have seen over the past six weeks or so, as we've been talking about.

How would you characterize what this period has been like in Hawaii, across the islands, as people have prepared for, watched and monitored the various effects of these storms?

PETRAMALA: Historic, unprecedented. The fact that they've had so many close calls just in the last month here in Hawaii is just unheard of.

Believe it or not, this is a very tiny target in a massive ocean. So for a hurricane to threaten the Hawaiian Islands, it's very rare most years.

But just the way that El Nino has set up, it's just created a perfect condition where there are more darts being thrown at the target. And so that's why we're seeing more of these hurricanes threatening the islands.

There's already been three hurricane watches here on the Hawaiian Islands so far this hurricane season.

I live in Florida. There's been one on the mainland of the United States in Texas just a couple of weeks ago. Just shows you the disparity. It's been a graveyard, essentially, of hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin.

Here in the Central Pacific, though we've had several and more threatening over the next couple of months, most likely. Again, because of that very, very strong El Nino that continues to develop.

JIMENEZ: Yes. Look, no matter where you are, you never want to be comparing your hurricane dealings with Florida and Texas.

So Jonathan, laying out the historic nature of what you guys have been seeing out there in Hawaii.

Jonathan Petramala, I really appreciate you taking the time.

PETRAMALA: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: And as we've talked about, ever critical right now, the CNN weather app, it gets you the data you need before the storm so you can plan your day with fewer surprises. You can get some of those precise insights and expert coverage when you download the app on iOS today.

All right, taking you across the globe geopolitically, Iran has a new plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump doesn't like it.

And the president also ramps up his fight with the media, keeping CNN off Air Force One. We'll bring you some of those details.

And then later, Missouri Republicans pushing to change voting maps ahead of the midterms. Supreme Court, not having it. We'll bring you those details as well.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

[17:13:28]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIMENEZ: President Trump is rejecting Iran's latest proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's foreign minister announcing earlier this week Tehran had submitted a new offer to the United States that would open the critical waterway.

It's not clear what exactly was in this latest proposal, but Iran's foreign minister says the conditions were nothing more than what was part of the U.S. Iran Memorandum of Understanding, which was signed earlier this summer even if it feels like it was signed much longer ago. That MOU fell apart after fighting resumed. Still, President Trump described this latest proposal is unacceptable.

So let's bring in CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger. He's also a "New York Times" correspondent and author of "New Cold Wars, China's Rise, Russia's invasion and America's Struggle to Defend the West".

David, good -- good to see you. Thanks for being here tonight.

So look, the president rejected this latest proposal by Iran. But as we sort of look at, ok, what would the president accept? And you look at his rhetoric at the United Nations where he talked about whether to annihilate the Islamic Republic or make a deal.

How would you characterize the state of affairs right now, diplomatically, in terms of a deal between the United States and Iran.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: They're kind of frozen, Omar. Thanks very much for having me -- having me on.

So here's the fundamental problem. Neither side wants to give up their greatest piece of leverage early on in this.

[17:19:45]

SANGER: And while we don't know the full details of this proposal, part of it for the Iranians, called for lifting the blockade that has bottled up their own ships, even while the U.S. has gotten some, nowhere near what they would like of the other oil out of the Persian Gulf.

The U.S., for its part, wants the Iranians to agree up front to begin to dismantle and turn over their 60 percent enriched uranium. This is a stockpile of uranium that is closest to bomb grade.

And, of Course, the Iranian position is that's at the very end of the deal after we're convinced that the U.S. is going to lift sanctions and so forth.

And so they're sort of stuck in this who goes first about their greatest source of leverage.

JIMENEZ: You know, and as all of this was going on on the sidelines of the UNGA, often in direct speaking and direct speeches at the UNGA, Chinese leader Xi Jinping came to Washington this week as well for meetings with President Trump. And they were set to discuss a bunch of high-stakes issues, including the future of A.I. and Taiwan.

But as you noted in your latest piece for the "New York Times", the visit was, quote, "full of lavish gestures and polite words, but few tangible policy announcements".

What do you think the purpose of this trip served? Does it matter that there were few substantial announcements that came out of it?

SANGER: Well, it's telling that there was so little out of it. I mean, this is the second meeting they've had now in about four months. The president, of course, was in Beijing in May, and there wasn't much out of that either.

On our way back from that trip, I was on Air Force One, and the president told us that by the time Xi Jinping came the next time, the president would have decided on an arms package for Taiwan, which has been pending for much of the year, he didn't decide on that.

That there would be detailed discussion on artificial intelligence. In fact, it looks like it was fairly brief, and they're only agreement was to get an experts' group together.

But some of the differences are telling. First of all, I think Xi Jinping views President Trump as unpredictable. Many other national leaders do. And therefore, he's just biding for time at this point. He just wants to see if he can get through the next two years with a good dose of what he calls strategic stability.

President Trump has walked away from his confrontational approach in the first term, especially after Xi cut off rare earths and magnets and so forth in response to the tariffs.

So he wants to show that his friendship, as he describes it with President Xi, can get the U.S. and China through.

JIMENEZ: A whirlwind week of diplomacy between New York City and Washington across the UNGA and Xi's visit.

SANGER: Yes.

JIMENEZ: David Sanger, appreciate you wading into those waters for us. Thanks for being here.

SANGER: Great to be with you.

JIMENEZ: All right. Meanwhile, President Trump's battle with CNN takes another twist. We'll explain.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM

[17:22:56]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIMENEZ: After a week-long standoff between news organizations and the Trump administration over access to the White House, the administration has now banned CNN from traveling on Air Force One. Now, CNN was supposed to cover the president's trip to Tennessee today as part of what's called the White House press pool.

Essentially, the pool is a group of journalists that rotate covering the president's space in a lot of these places is often limited. The pool then shares the information they gather, including video with other news organizations so they can use.

But with this latest ban, no major television news networks were with Trump for his trip today.

CNN's Brian Stelter joins us now. So, Brian, what do you see as the president attempting to do here?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, we're doing Pool 101 this weekend. I'm glad you were explaining that to the viewers why this setup is the way it is.

This structure has been in place for decades for practical reasons, because, you know, there are many times when the American president is traveling or speaking and the entire press pool, the entire press corps cannot fit in the room. So as a result, you have a pool, a smaller group of reporters who take turns covering the presidents events. And this has served the country really well, not just for 10 or 20 years, but for many decades.

Actually, CNN had to sue back in the 80s to be allowed into the pool, but it has been working very well ever since. So the five major networks have shown some solidarity in the past week, but it's been a very fluid situation with this pool.

The news outlets have been trying to show solidarity, maybe sending a message that a ban of some is a ban of all, because next week, Trump could wake up and decide to ban Axios instead of Politico, he could decide to ban NBC instead of CNN.

So there has been some solidarity. But whether that's realistic and practical in the long term, I think remains to be seen. I think we're going to start to see other networks start to fulfill their pool duties on the days they're scheduled, but decline to fill in on the days CNN is scheduled.

That's my sense of what may be coming down the pike. But this is ultimately about how the president reaches the public, how he is seen on camera, whether he's seen on camera. And we know that he wants that attention.

He's going to be holding rallies ahead of the midterms. He's going to want the spotlight on him. And as he does that, what I'd encourage viewers at home to think about is who's actually covering him. Is there independent coverage? That's the most important part of this.

JIMENEZ: You know, also earlier this week, a judge said the Trump administration had to restore media organizations' access to the White House.

JIMENEZ: How does that play into something like Air Force One? And where do you think the legal fight goes from here?

STELTER: Right. So the ruling very, you know, very -- the ruling is open to interpretation in some ways. But it said that those press passes had to be restored for the White House grounds.

[17:30:02]

There will be further litigation in the days and weeks to come, because that was just a two-week temporary restraining order. So there's going to be more to come on this.

But it seems to me this weekend the White House is trying to say, OK, well, we are allowing you on the White House grounds, but we are not going to let you into really relatively small spaces like Air Force One where there is a limited number of seats.

There is actually a case about that in litigation still in Washington, involving the Associated Press.

But I think the bigger picture here is the important part. The president is trying lots of different ways to crack down on the American press. Whether that's defunding PBS and NPR, whether it's trying to reshape the press pool, whether that's trying to delegitimize news coverage. We cover it all the time in many different ways.

He is trying to replace real reporters with fawning partisan media personalities, who cosplay as news, who ask him flattering questions but don't hold him accountable, and we see that happening on a daily basis.

Today, there are a couple of small MAGA media streaming channels who are traveling with the president, claiming to be the new pool reporters, claiming to provide video. They are not in it though with the interest that newsrooms actually have.

So, the idea here, it's out with the press, in with the propaganda. But I'm skeptical that that's going to work, because Americans want to know what the president is really doing and not doing. They don't want to just listen to MAGA media sources.

But that's the big picture here. Right? Trump trying to control news coverage, newsrooms pushing back, and it's very much a push and pull dynamic right now.

JIMENEZ: Brian Stelter, appreciate you being here. And you all at home can get all the latest news from Brian's newsletter. You can sign up at cnn.com/reliablesources for more on this story and others.

All right, meanwhile, for the third time in three weeks, the Supreme Court tells Missouri Republicans, no. We will tell you why.

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:36:24]

JIMENEZ: An important update on the killing of the young woman whose body was found hanging in a tree last month in Jackson, Mississippi, Tasia Fortune. A Jackson police detective says her hanging was staged, as he put it, and that she was actually killed in a disagreement about drugs and had fought with her attackers before she was killed.

The detective did not say whether the alleged killers tried to make it look specifically like a lynching, but that imagery sparked a lot of fear in the community and beyond, especially, when there was much less information available.

Three men have been arrested here, all of them black, and at least one has pleaded not guilty as court proceedings for all of the men continue.

Meanwhile, in Missouri, with just 38 days until the midterm elections, the Supreme Court, for a third time in three weeks, has blocked Missouri from using a new congressional map that would have given Republicans an edge.

That map drew protests before it was approved by the Missouri legislature last year. The case involved just a single House seat, but took on broader importance as Republicans try to maintain control of Congress. The Supreme Court noted that ballots using the old map have been printed and mailed, and that absentee voting has already started.

The Court said using the revised map would just cause electoral chaos. But several states have been racing this year to redraw congressional maps, trying to get some sort of edge in the midterm elections. Now, as you might have noticed, just weeks away,

CNN's Marshall Cohen explains how Democrats ended up losing the redistricting wars and how it could cost them in November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Just a very simple redrawing. We pick up five seats.

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER (voice over): Trump's talking about redrawing districts to benefit Republicans.

COHEN: And that started a gerrymandering arms race.

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: The Texas Senate approved a new Republican-drawn congressional map.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Florida redrew its map.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tennessee --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alabama.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Louisiana.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ohio redrew its map. That's two seats.

REP. KEVIN KILEY (R-CA): It's just state after state after state.

COHEN: But the arms race could only go so far, and that's because while these states changed their maps, others enacted reforms years earlier, making it harder or impossible to gerrymander on demand.

Here is why the gerrymandering arms race hit its limit, and how that could cost Democrats control of Congress.

COHEN (voice over): A lot of this can be traced back to the 2010 Midterm Elections.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the overall map. You can see that sweeping change of color from all of that blue to all of that red.

COHEN: Republicans won new trifectas in several states. So, what does that mean? Well, if Republicans control the state House, the state Senate, and the governorship, a map that Republican lawmakers propose can sail through the legislature and get signed into law with few political obstacles.

COHEN (voice over): With all those trifectas in place, Republicans held on to the U.S. House until 2019. Now, at the same time, something else was happening. Other states, mostly blue states, were moving in the other direction with support from voting rights groups like Common Cause.

OMAR NOURELDIN, POLICY AND LITIGATION STRATEGY, COMMON CAUSE: There was a movement to say how do we fix this problem, and so, Common Cause looked at a number of different proposals about how to counter that. And one of them was independent redistricting commissions.

COHEN (voice over): Some states tried it, including Maryland. I spoke to Walter Olson, who was appointed to that state's commission in 2021.

WALTER OLSON, FORMER CHAIR, FREDERICK COUNTY, MARYLAND CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION: The idea of a redistricting commission is you take the work of drawing the lines out of the hands of the most self-interested group, typically, the state legislators, and you give it to someone else.

COHEN: What's it like in that room?

OLSON: We would argue, and we would argue, and then, we would find some common ground of agreement to move forward.

COHEN: What are we looking at here? These were the original maps before you started your work.

OLSON: This was the existing gerrymander that was in place.

[17:40:00]

COHEN: OK.

This is also from the original map.

OLSON: District number three, by some measures, that's the worst and most laughed at in the whole country. A judge called this a broken- winged pterodactyl. Now, people have called it a lot of names, but what it isn't is a logical collection of communities.

COHEN: And now, I'm going to pull up the map that your commission drew. First impression: it looks a lot cleaner.

OLSON: Well, I sure hope it does, because we concentrated on things like respecting county lines. We kept most of them together.

COHEN: Maryland is one of several states where the redistricting commission is advisory. That means the maps they make are just a starting point. Lawmakers can adopt them, amend them, or throw them out in the trash.

What happened at the end?

OLSON: The legislature ignored our maps and pulled out of their desk a terrible gerrymander that went even further than the last one.

COHEN: So, they said, thank you, Walter. Thank you to the commission. We are not interested.

OLSON: No, they didn't say thank you.

They ignored us completely. But then it went to court. And it was sued, and they pulled out a second map, which was of all miracles, it was way more reasonable, and that's the one they enacted. So, Maryland graduated from being arguably the worst congressional gerrymander in the whole country to being at least halfway up.

COHEN (voice over): However, a few states have commissions that are truly independent, and they draw the final maps. And then, some other states fall somewhere in between. Now, all of this is on a state level.

COHEN: But on a national level, something else was happening. In 2016, Common Cause filed this lawsuit against North Carolina for its partisan gerrymander. It went all the way up to the Supreme Court.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Justices say that federal courts must stay out of disputes over whether politicians go too far in drawing district lines for partisan gain.

COHEN: And that meant that any future safeguards against gerrymandering would need to come from the states.

Some states are much less likely to enact reforms. NOURELDIN: Sometimes the political power in a particular state is so strong and so entrenched, and we are not able to get those reforms.

The idea was that these independent redistricting commissions could be passed state by state, but what we saw is that it didn't catch fire in the way that, you know, reform efforts hoped it would.

COHEN (voice over): So, when Trump called for redistricting, states that had enacted reforms later found out that they actually tied their own hands. For example, look at what happened in Virginia this year.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: The Virginia Supreme Court has invalidated what was a Democratic-drawn congressional map.

LAURA COATES, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: The redistricting plan in Virginia, that passed in a statewide referendum just last month.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The procedure to set up the referendum, which voters had voted on just over two weeks ago, that did not comply with Virginia's state constitution.

COHEN: Other states also struggle to override their commissions. For instance, in Colorado, one proposal didn't even make it on the ballot. These fumbles could give Republicans a much-needed leg up in the November elections.

COHEN (voice over): Republicans could net about nine additional House seats if the redrawn districts perform as intended in their favor.

COHEN: But one state could rebalance the scales for Democrats, and that's California, which normally uses an independent commission to redraw its maps, which look like this. But voters in California last year voted to approve a referendum to override their commission. The Democratic legislature designed this new map to possibly flip five current Republican seats. Look at all that blue.

For groups like Common Cause that have worked for years to stop this from happening, it was a pretty bittersweet moment.

NOURELDIN: It's a sad situation that we are in, and accepting the political realities is part of the job of organizations like Common Cause, and trying to balance two things: short-term harm mitigation versus the long-term goal of fair maps.

At the end of the day, fair representation and fair maps is the goal.

COHEN: So, where do we go from here? Well, the November election still needs to happen. We will see who wins and who loses. But lawmakers and advocates are working still on their long-term plans to bring gerrymandering to an end.

NOURELDIN: We would love the idea of every state independently making, you know, adopting the same rule, but that's not going to happen.

OLSON: I still support drawing lines fairly, even if you are in a season of adversity. We don't want to wake up with the short-term battle won, and all of a sudden, we find that we have undone a lot of work that took many, many years to put in place.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: Marshall Cohen with the in-depth look. Thank you.

Also, over the past 40 years, we have had more than 500 acts that have played Farm Aid. And tonight, in the 41st version of a charity fundraiser, we are going to see some of the biggest names in music.

[17:44:52]

We are live from Farm Aid next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIMENEZ: Tonight, legendary musicians, including Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp are going to take the stage at the 41st Farm Aid Music Festival. The event raises money for family-owned farms around America. CNN is going to bring you those performances live, by the way, coming up not too long from now.

So, let's check in with CNN anchor John Berman, who is there from the festival in Virginia. John, how would you characterize the vibe right now?

[17:50:03]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I would characterize it, Omar, as pretty awesome. Even more awesome. I'm somewhere where I never thought I would be, which is backstage at a star-studded music festival. I'm not nearly this cool. This is my first time ever backstage while a concert was actually going on, the Turnpike Troubadours are playing right now. Later on, Margot Price, Dave Matthews, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp.

Farm Aides raised $90 million over the last 41 years. This is the 41st show. I said how cool it was for me to be backstage here at a music festival. I'm actually backstage with someone who has already played.

Jesse Welles is here with me now. Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, guitarist. As you can see, I didn't bring my guitar. I didn't know we were doing instruments.

JESSE WELLES, AMERICAN SINGER-SONGWRITER: Sorry, I always keep one on me.

BERMAN: Just in case you need it, I was out in the house for your set. What's it like -- it was awesome, by the way. What's it like to look out there and see 20,000 people, but so many of them, farmers, people from all over the country coming here for a cause.

WELLES: Oh, you feel like you are playing -- you feel like this is the reason that you started playing in the first place. So, yes, that's -- those are your people. Yes.

BERMAN: This is my second Farm Aid. You said this was your third, and you -- how important this concert's been to your career, really?

WELLES: Yes, yes. I mean, when things were just getting started, and some of my videos were blowing up on the Internet, John Mellencamp sent me an e-mail and asked if I would come out and play, and I had to get that e-mail kind of vetted out. I didn't even -- I didn't believe it was him. I thought it was a scam, but it was him, and he wanted me to come and play Farm Aid.

And now, every year I come here, it's like a big family reunion. I see everybody on the road too, in other cities, and that sort of thing. Yes.

BERMAN: You really -- you got an e-mail from John Mellencamp. I've never -- I never got an e-mail from John Mellencamp, but you didn't think it was really from him?

WELLES: No, no. It was -- it would -- it seemed like a random account, and he had reached out and -- very terse about it. You know, he just said, Jesse Welles, I would like you to come and play Farm Aid on September 24th, 2024. And I said, OK.

BERMAN: That's such a great story. Obviously, so, Farm Aid for 41 years, right, has been raising money for farmers. When it was started, farmers were in such need, but now it's almost no better. I mean, they are in such need right now. Why is it so important to support America's farmers?

WELLES: Because the food is where everything starts. Farmers have been the backbone of this country since this country started, man. And farmers are in a really bad way right now. They don't need me to say it. They can tell you themselves. Tariffs have hurt them very badly. Diesel prices are hurting them very badly, and huge conglomerates with monopolies on the food market and the farm market are also hurting them. They need us now more than other ever.

BERMAN: Obviously, the audience out here is full of farmers and people who I think agree with you. What do the leaders in Washington and around the country need to hear from this concert?

WELLES: From this concert, they need to hear that there's a lot of us getting hip to it. There is a lot of us getting wise to it, and there is a whole new generation of farmers coming up. And if you want the people's support, you need to support the people.

BERMAN: Listen, Jesse Welles, as I said, I love your music. I loved your set. Thank you so much for being with us. Next time, I'll bring -- I don't play guitar, I play the trumpet. At least I did until eighth grade.

WELLES: Bring me a trumpet.

BERMAN: All right, man. We'll do a duet. Nice to see you.

WELLES: Nice to see you.

BERMAN: Omar, as you can see, I kind of in like rock heaven right now, this is so cool.

(CROSSTALK)

JIMENEZ: And when you bring the trumpet --

And when you bring the trumpet, I want to see you with Jesse Welles.

BERMAN: Then, I bring us some.

JIMENEZ: Yes, there we go. There we go. Good to see you.

BERMAN: That's right.

JIMENEZ: And you can watch --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: That's all --

JIMENEZ: You can watch.

BERMAN: Thanks, Omar.

JIMENEZ: You can watch Farm Aide live on CNN tonight at 7:00 and stream with an all-access subscription as well.

For now, we will be right back.

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[17:58:34]

JIMENEZ: This week's CNN HERO is a pioneer in conservation. She was the first wildlife veterinarian in her home country of Uganda, where she's devoted her life to protecting endangered mountain gorillas. When she realized their survival was intertwined with conditions in local communities, she took action, and today, she helps gorillas and their human neighbors thrive.

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DR. GLADYS KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA, FOUNDER, CONSERVATION THROUGH PUBLIC HEALTH: The mountain gorillas used to be one of the most critically endangered species on Earth. When I first came out here as a vet student, I realized how intelligent they were, and you know, I felt a really deep connection. I was like, wow, I felt it was so important that they are protected.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is home to 43 percent of the world's endangered mountain gorillas. Bwindi is threatened by a lot of high human population growth. There is a lot of interaction between the gorillas and the people. We used to find that people were not hygienic. Gorillas were picking up preventable diseases, basically. And this made me realize that you couldn't protect the gorillas without improving the health of their human neighbors.

Gandhi.

We started the village health and conservation team approach in 2007. They do a lot of good work promoting health and hygiene practices. And now, we are reaching over 10,000 households.

You can make each other sick.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA: But we are not making each other sick because you are cleaner.

[18:00:02]

Over time, we have seen huge changes: having a clean toilet, hand washing station, a separate animal house. At the same time, we want to make sure that they are less dependent on the forest by finding them sustainable livelihoods.