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Woman Killed in Kansas City Super Bowl Parade Shooting; Israeli Special Forces Enter Nasser Hospital in Gaza; U.S. Has Intel on Russian Nuclear Capabilities in Space; This Week: Trump's Court Battles Collide. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired February 15, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:17]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Morning, everyone. Glad you're with us. I'm Poppy Harlow with Phil Mattingly in New York.

One person has been killed, more than 20 others injured in a shooting at the end of the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade. Children are among those injured this morning. How they are doing, and what we're learning about the motive behind all of this.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: And breaking just moments ago, Israeli Special Forces are raiding one of the last working hospitals in Gaza. The IDF claiming to have, quote, "credible intelligence" that the bodies of dead hostages may be inside.

And it's a very busy day on the legal front for Donald Trump. In just a few hours, he'll once again be in New York, in a New York City courtroom, this time for the Stormy Daniels hush money case.

And in Georgia, the district attorney overseeing Trump's election subversion case faces a possible disqualification.

CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

HARLOW: And are now learning that nine -- nine children were among the 21 people shot after yesterday's Super Bowl parade in Kansas City. About a million people were there downtown for the celebrations, and players were still onstage at the victory rally when the shooting happened.

Listen to that moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(GUNSHOTS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: You can see just the huge crowds sprinting for safety as police, state troopers, FBI agents all rushed in. Some people jumped over barricades, and paramedics rushed in to help people wounded on the ground.

Police say three people are in custody this morning for questioning.

This video shows the moment that one of those people was tackled by a couple of fans who happened to be in the right place at the right time. They held him down until police arrived.

One of them described just the intense moment to CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL CONTRERAS, SUPER BOWL PARADE SHOOTING WITNESS: I just heard somebody yelling to stop this guy; tackle him. You don't think about it. It's just a reaction. He got close to me. I got the right angle on him, and I hit him from behind. As I'm taking him down to the ground, I see the gun on the ground.

So I take them down, and I'm putting all -- all my body weight on him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: As it stands this morning, one person has been confirmed dead. She's been identified as a local radio D.J.

CNN's Whitney Wild is live for us in Kansas City to start us off. Whitney, what are we hearing now from witnesses as the investigation remains ongoing?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was a scene of complete chaos, and fortunately, there were good Samaritans there who were able to jump in, right as that gunfire erupted.

A quick update on those children who were taken to Children's Mercy Hospital. They are expected to make a full recovery. Not one of them is in critical condition. So if there is any good news at this point, it is that those children will eventually recover from their injuries, although this tragedy certainly will live with them for quite some time.

Here in Kansas City, this is a tragic scene, frozen in time as police continue to investigate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILD (voice-over): A Super Bowl celebration marred by tragedy. In Kansas City, gunfire rang out following the parade celebrating the Chiefs' back-to-back Super Bowl wins.

CHIEF STACEY GRAVES, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, POLICE: I'm angry at what happened today. The people who came to this celebration should expect a safe environment.

WILD (voice-over): Kansas City police say three people are in custody for questioning. One person was killed and at least 21 others were shot.

LISA LOPEZ-GALVAN, KKFI D.J.: Kansas City D.J. Lisa G here.

WILD (voice-over): In a statement to CNN, Kansas City area radio station KKFI confirmed D.J. Lisa Lopez-Galvan was killed, writing they are devastated by this loss as Lisa worked to bring "a voice to the K.C. community."

Children's Mercy Hospital confirms at least nine of the gunshot victims are children. Kansas City schools were closed Wednesday to allow students to attend the celebration. Kansas City's mayor spoke about how he even considered bringing his child to the event.

MAYOR QUINTON LUCAS (D), KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI: I don't want us to have to, in our country, for every big event, think about a concern of being shot.

[06:05:03]

WILD (voice-over): The Kansas City Chiefs also speaking out, including quarterback Patrick Mahomes and defensive end Charles Omenihu, who posted on X, "When are we going to fix these gun laws? How many more people have to die to say enough is enough?"

An estimated 1 million people gathered in downtown Kansas [SIC] to celebrate, when shots rang out in quick succession, just steps from where the team was holding a rally.

ALYSSA MARSH-CONTRERAS, SUPER BOWL PARADE SHOOTING WITNESS: You just hear pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. And like I said, we were at a celebration, and I think a lot of people thought it were fireworks, because nobody really ran or anything.

WILD (voice-over): Witnesses in the crowd spotted the alleged shooter and gave chase.

TONY, SUPER BOWL PARADE SHOOTING WITNESS: Once he took off running, like instinctually, I just took off running after him. He was hopping barriers. I was hopping barriers, just trying to stay in somewhat distance of him and that way I could -- if I could see a cop and help him identify that was the guy.

WILD (voice-over): Good Samaritans tackled the individual. Moments later, police detained him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gun is over here!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got it.

WILD (voice-over): One of those good Samaritans says he saw a gun.

CONTRERAS: You don't think about it. It's just a reaction. He got close to me. I got the right angle on him, and I hit him from behind. And when I hit him from behind, I either jarred the gun out of his hand or out of his sleeve. Because as I'm taking him down to the ground, we were fighting him to keep them down. We didn't want to let them up and take off running, because he had one gun. He may have had another one in that big bulky Jacket. (END VIDEOTAPE)

WILD (on camera): Police, again, are continuing to investigate. We are hoping to learn more about those three people who are detained later today.

Justin Reid tweeted this: "Kids are being shot, and somebody didn't come home tonight. We cannot allow this to be normal" -- Phil and Poppy.

HARLOW: We absolutely cannot. Whitney Wild, thank you. And thank you for letting us know those children are at least physically going to recover from all of this. We appreciate the reporting.

MATTINGLY: Well, the FBI has now set up a website asking for tips or videos from the shooting.

Joining us now, CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former FBI deputy director, Andrew McCabe.

Andy, to that point, there are hundreds of thousands of people. We have seen so many videos already. Three people are in custody. What are they looking for right now in terms of the investigation?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: So Phil, very simply, they are looking for photographs or videos that can actually essentially allow them to go back in time and see the moment when the shots ring out.

And of course, their effort is to try to identify which people are actually responsible for -- for letting those shots off.

You know, at this point, we know that we have three people in custody, and thanks to the good work of some good Samaritans who got involved and tried to, you know, help law enforcement, actually, pin some of those folks down. That's a great start, but it's a long way from having a witness who can actually tell you that the person who you have in custody is also a person who was firing a weapon.

So that's the connection they're trying to make with video and -- and photographic evidence.

You'll remember it was after the Boston bombing that we -- we tried this approach for the first time, really, on a large scale, and it's essentially crowdsourcing the collection of crime scene evidence.

In the case of the Boston bombing, of course, we -- the response was so overwhelming that it actually brought down from the FBI's servers. We had to augment our -- our computer systems to be able to tolerate the amount of material were taking in.

That, of course, creates a massive burden of reviewing that material. That's another entire team that has to be set up to conduct that review.

HARLOW: So many people, Andy, about a million people there. Such a large, just physical area they were covering. Eight hundred law enforcement officers.

Also in a city that has really relaxed gun laws. I mean, you don't need a permit for open carry there. So how much more difficult does it make it just to secure a scene like this?

MCCABE: You know, a massive amount of planning goes into the security structure for an event like this, simply because of what you've pointed out.

It is a huge, huge group of people. But it is impossible to completely secure an event of this magnitude, because it's an open scene. Right? We're outside in a massive public park in front of the train station. People are not required to provide tickets. So there's no control over who can come in. There's not access controls, so you don't have -- you're not, like, filtering the crowd through designated entry points where you would scan people with magnetometers and things like that.

So combine this mass -- massive event with the pretty much, you get what you, whatever walks up on the day of in terms of crowd, with the fact that many people are likely carrying guns. In a state like Missouri where you have open carry laws, there's really no way to know how many if people in that crowd are armed. It prevents -- it presents a very toxic, tough situation to control as soon as -- as soon as hostilities kind of bubble over.

[06:10:07]

MATTINGLY: Yes, no question about it. Investigation ongoing. Andrew, we appreciate the time, as always.

HARLOW: Also, this. New overnight, the IDF says its Special Forces are inside of Nasser Hospital. That is in Khan Yunis in Gaza. They're describing it as a "precise and limited" -- that's a quote -- mission.

They believe Hamas fighters are hiding there and that the bodies of Israeli hostages may be inside. And this comes a day after the IDF ordered hundreds of displaced civilians to leave the hospital that they were using as shelter.

Nic Robertson joins us live in Tel Aviv.

Not the first time we've seen an operation by the IDF inside of a hospital. We saw a really remarkable one that was under cover a while ago. What more do we know about what's happening right now on the ground?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. The al-Nasser hospital in the Western part of Khan Yunis has been the focus of IDF military operations on and off for about the past three weeks or so.

That Western part of Khan Yunis has been the focus for IDF actions against Hamas.

And what the IDF says now is that they have -- they're conducting this precise, focused operation because they say that they have, from sources and from hostages who've been released, information that says hostages were held at the hospital and that their bodies may be buried there.

And this isn't the first time where we've seen the IDF go into hospitals, dig up compounds where bodies have been buried by hospital staff, because they can't get out. It's not safe to get out to go to cemeteries.

And the IDF will then take those bodies and check them to see if there are hostages among them. That's what we've seen before.

But what we saw this morning, in video that was recorded by journalists inside the hospital, is smoke and dust and debris and doctors trying to treat patients in what appears to be a partially collapsed room. This is the orthopedic room. We're told at the hospital there's a hissing sound. We're told that that is the sound of the oxygen supply there being ruptured. According to Palestinian health officials, one person was killed.

They're worried now about the oxygen supply for -- for patients in the ICU, intensive care unit in the hospital.

And hospital officials are saying that it's been unsafe for people to leave the hospital. They say that snipers, Israeli Defense Force snipers, have been shooting at people as they've tried to leave the hospital.

Yesterday, hundreds of people were seen lining up to leave. And typically, what the IDF does in these situations is come and tell the hospital and its staff to evacuate, and then try to filter those people who evacuate out, because they're looking for Hamas operatives.

The IDF says they want the hospital to keep functioning. It's very clear from the Palestinian perspective, it is not in a state of functioning properly right now.

MATTINGLY: Yes, certainly the case by the videos we've seen. Nic Robertson, keep us posted. Thank you.

HARLOW: Also, this morning, there's new intelligence on Russia's nuclear capabilities. And get this: officials say it involves space. Some lawmakers also want it declassified. They want it made public.

MATTINGLY: And Donald Trump says he now intentionally mixed up Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi. It's like me with my kids' birthdays. His reasoning, we're going to give to you, next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They said, He didn't know Pelosi from Nikki, from Tricky Nikki. Tricky Nikki. He didn't know.

I interpose, and they make a big deal out of it. I said no, no, I think they both stink. They have something in common.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:17:23]

HARLOW: The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is warning of a, quote, "serious national security threat." Multiple sources tell CNN that it concerns Russia's ability to put nuclear anti-satellite systems into space.

MATTINGLY: Now, U.S. officials say the system is still being developed and does not involve a weapon to attack humans, but it would pose a significant danger to U.S. nuclear command and control of satellites.

Some lawmakers fear it is so serious that President Biden should declassify the information and make it public.

CNN's Katie Bo Lillis joins us now.

Katie Bo, first off, given what you cover for a living, yesterday must have been fairly interesting. Getting a cryptic, a very cryptic statement from the House Intelligence Committee chairman can kind of freak people out, and it did.

Do we have any sense of why Mike Turner released that statement and where this stands right now?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Phil, that's a great question. This was a very weird day on Capitol Hill yesterday, for sure.

So U.S. and -- U.S. officials who have seen this intelligence described it to us as a -- as a piece of intelligence showing a Russian effort to develop a new nuclear anti-satellite system for use in space. This is the kind of system that, as you mentioned, has the potential to imperil Russia -- or America's vast network of both military and commercial satellites, to include even potentially the satellites that are vital to the command and control that America has over its own nuclear arsenal.

But Phil and Poppy, it's really important to emphasize kind of right off the bat that it's not clear whether or not this is a nuclear armed anti-satellite system. So think like a warhead. Or a nuclear-powered anti-satellite system. So think like a nuclear submarine.

Also really important to note, that officials emphasized to us that this system, according to the intelligence that they were briefed on, is still under development and has not yet been deployed into orbit. And in fact, there's some questions about how far along the technology actually is.

So one of the big questions surrounding Turner's sort of urgency yesterday is that officials were describing this as a longer-term strategic threat, right? Something serious, something important, but not like an imminent public emergency.

HARLOW: One of the things, Katie Bo, that I think is so interesting is Jake Sullivan saying yesterday that he was surprised that Mike Turner made just the fact that this exists, this intelligence exists public, and then Turner saying, essentially, that he wants the Biden administration to declassify it.

Can you -- can you explain why?

LILLIS: Sort of. In fact, that's one of the -- that's one of the big questions here, right, is why did Turner want to sort of push this into the public eye or choose to push this to the public eye that he did, in the way that he did.

[06:20:05]

HARLOW: Yes.

LILLIS: So this all starts, right, as with this very cryptic message: I've got a serious national security threat. Lawmakers should come down to our secure classified spaces and take a look at it. And many of the lawmakers who kind of trooped down to take a look at it, left sort of underwhelmed.

And so I think there is a lot of speculation right now on Capitol Hill that what -- what Mike Turner might be trying to do here is try to bolster support for -- flagging GOP support on Capitol Hill for American support for the -- for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

But at this point, nobody really knows, except for Mike Turner. He is obviously pushing for this to be declassified. We're expecting to get a briefing today from the national security adviser on Capitol Hill. So we will see what becomes public from that.

HARLOW: Yes, that's an interesting point, though, given the ongoing debate over whether they're going to pass that funding for Ukraine.

Katie Bo, great reporting. Thank you very much.

A busy 12 hours for SpaceX as it launched two space missions. A Falcon 9 rocket boosted six class -- classified satellites into orbit Wednesday for Space Force. Two of them involve missile-tracking capabilities.

And then, just hours later, the lunar lander blasted off for its historic mission. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one, ignition. And list-off. Go, SpaceX. Go IM-1 (ph).

MATTINGLY: The Odysseus, nicknamed Odie -- kind of like the dog from "Garfield," I guess -- launched overnight from Kennedy Space Center in Florida after an earlier attempt had been scrubbed.

If all goes well, it will be the first U.S. touchdown on the Moon's surface in more than a half century. The robotic explorer is set to land a week from today. Big day in space.

Well, new body cam footage was released of a Florida officer opening fire on a suspect inside a patrol car after he thought he heard gunfire, but it was actually an acorn.

HARLOW: And in just a couple of hours, Donald Trump will be in a courtroom again, this time right here in New York City for the Stormy Daniels hush money case. That is not the only one of his trials making news today. We'll tell you what's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:46]

MATTINGLY: Well, we are launching directly into a whirlwind 48 hours for Donald Trump, as several of his legal battles collide.

In just a few hours here in New York City, he's expected to attend a hearing in the hush money case against him. At the same time, a hearing is set in his election subversion case in Georgia.

Now, both hearings come as we wait to hear from a New York judge on the fate of Trump's business empire in the state.

And here to walk us through all of it, thankfully, in the president's [SIC] busy agenda -- former president's busy agenda, CNN senior crime and justice reporter Katelyn Polantz.

All right. A lot going on, a lot of moving pieces. This is why you're our expert. Where do things stand right now?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, the big thing that's happening for Donald Trump is the march to trial for his four criminal cases.

The New York hush money case, that one we could see that, if it's going to be locked in to be the first trial he faces. There is going to be that hearing today where the judge is very likely to address that.

And then over here here, this is where the cameras are today. So this is in Georgia. Fani Willis and others, her top prosecutor, Nathan Wade, with whom she had a relationship. They're going to have testimony in Georgia with cameras on about the prosecutors and their ability to keep on this case, taking it forward.

These other two criminal cases, the two federal cases, those are moving forward, as well.

In New York, though, the focus here is around Trump's business and his business practices, not just in the hush money case: a criminal accusation of using his business records, falsifying them to cover up the Stormy Daniel payments in 2016.

But also on Friday, we're going to have a big decision from Judge Arthur Engoron on how much penalties Trump should face for the Trump Organization inflating their financial records.

So a lot in New York, a big focus there this week.

And then the presidential immunity question is squarely before the Supreme Court. Not only are you going to be hearing about it related to Trump's criminal case, now that it's teed up, and the justices can look at it, whether they're going to send him back to trial or they're going to take on this question of presidential immunity.

We're also going to be hearing about it today, because Trump is going to have to argue, continue to argue, as he has before and lost, that he has presidential immunity be from lawsuits related to January 6. So that's coming up today, as well.

MATTINGLY: On the immunity issue, we've been waiting for Jack Smith to respond to what Trump's lawyers had filed. He did that last night. It was a very forceful response. They clearly want to move fast.

Does the Supreme Court?

POLANTZ: Yes. There's a couple of different things. There's options.

So Trump wants the lengthy trial pause. He could either have more appeals -- That's one request -- or he could get to the Supreme Court quickly.

Jack Smith, he wants a quick resolution on this. He wants the Supreme Court to send Trump onto trial. And if they don't do that immediately, he wants to have some sort of resolution by June.

Finally, in that filing from Jack Smith, there were a lot of warnings, but one of the things in the filing the last night from Jack Smith to the Supreme Court, he stacked up to the Supreme Court everything that Trump has faced on this presidential immunity claim, trial judges' decisions that's been lost. The appeals court opinion, that's also been a loss for him.

The Founding Fathers, nobody who wrote the Constitution or the Federalist Papers was for presidential immunity. And then former presidents, they were a little bit afraid of the idea of criminal prosecution and were clearly acknowledging they could be prosecuted. Richard Nixon leaving office.

There were a lot of citations in that about history and how Trump is doing something very different.

MATTINGLY: Just a point of clarity, what is that?

POLANTZ: Oh, that's a -- that's a scared face for the former presidents.

MATTINGLY: Oh, yes. No, I got that. I got that.

Katelyn Polantz, thank you. As always, my friend. Appreciate it.

HARLOW: Can I just say that you just made my morning, Katelyn Polantz? POLANTZ: Thanks.

HARLOW: Thank you very much for that.

With us now, CNN senior legal analyst, Elie Honig; Republican strategist Doug Heye; and CNN political analyst Coleman Hughes. Thank you very much, guys. Great to be with you this morning.

Elie, so many cases there. I want to start with Jack Smith and the federal election subversion case. And what's going on in the Supreme Court now.

What is his one goal?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: To get this thing tried before the election. No question about it. This is all Jack Smith cares about, to the point where he's willing to completely reverse his legal position. Whatever speeds it up.

And let's remember: two months ago, Jack Smith made an emergency application to the Supreme Court. He said, I want you to take it. I want to skip the court of appeals. And in that brief, Jack Smith said, it is, quote, "imperative that this court," the Supreme Court, "resolve this case."