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CNN This Morning

Extreme Solar Storm Hits Earth For First Time Since 2003; Michael Cohen To Take The Stand In Trump Hush Money Trial; Powerful Geomagnetic Storm Dazzle Parts of the World With The Aurora Borealis; Florida Deputy Fatally Shoots U.S. Airman In His Own Home; Israel Orders Palestinians To Immediately Evacuate Rafah. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired May 11, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

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[06:00:35]

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Good morning to you and welcome to CNN This Morning. It is Saturday, May 11. I'm Amara Walker.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. It is always good to be with you. Thanks for joining us this morning.

Happening now, Earth is weathering a powerful solar storm has brought a spectacular light show to parts of the U.S. but also threatens to disrupt life on the ground.

Scientists say this massive geomagnetic storm is now a level five out of five or extreme with the potential to impact communications, power grids, satellites.

WALKER: And the strength of the storm is causing auroras usually only seen around the Earth's Northern and Southern poles to travel further out appearing in many places that rarely if ever see them. Also known as the Northern Lights.

These pictures were taken in Hastings, Florida by a storm chaser just beautiful hues there. And these are images taken from a plane over Detroit. The storm is expected to continue through the weekend. Now this is the most powerful solar storm to hit Earth since 2003

CNN's Kristin Fisher explains what's happening with this historic phenomenon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's called a coronal mass ejection, and those highly charged particles have been barreling towards Earth at 500 miles per second ever since. The first particles began striking Earth's magnetic field Friday afternoon.

HAKEEM OLUSEYL, ASTROPHYSICIST: Just think of gazillions of protons coming toward Earth at the same time. There's also electrons in there. There's also magnetic fields. And when they hit the Earth's magnetic field or any other planets magnetic field, they interact with that field. And those changes generate currents, which can damage power grids, satellites, anything that has an electrical conductor involved.

FISHER (voice-over): The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is describing this storm as an extraordinary and very rare event. One that also has them a little concerned, the biggest threats are to satellites and to global power grids. NOAA says it notified critical infrastructure operators and that mitigation efforts have been taken. But it's still warning of possible widespread voltage control problems.

OLUSEYL: The last time we had a big power outage due to a geomagnetic storm was in the 80s Have we fix things since then? We're going to find out.

FISHER (voice-over): Satellites will also be tested. Most can go into a safe mode during a solar storm. But just two years ago, SpaceX lost 40 of its Starlink internet satellites during a geomagnetic storm that wasn't as strong as this one. And then there's the threat to people in space.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is Jamestown actual 12 astronauts, we got a solar storm coming in and it's a hot one.

FISHER (voice-over): Apple TV's "For All Mankind" envisioned astronauts on the moon running for cover to dodge the incoming radiation during a strong solar storm. In reality, it's the astronauts currently onboard the International Space Station that may need to shelter in more protected portions of the orbiting outpost.

OLUSEYL: Space radiation is a known phenomenon that is dangerous to biology, whether it's during a geomagnetic storm or just the general thrust into outer space.

FISHER (voice-over): But despite the potential danger, a solar storm also rewards us with some of the most spectacular auroras and this time over a wider area extending as far south as Alabama.

OLUSEYL: The beauty of nice coronal mass ejections is that we get to have an astronomical event basically come to us from space that's visible to the naked eye. We all just recently experienced this with the total solar eclipse that happened in April. So now seeing the Northern Lights, that is another extraordinary astronomical event.

FISHER (voice-over): Kristin Fisher, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Kristin, thank you very much. This geomagnetic storm is expected to last through the weekend.

WALKER: CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar is here with us. So does that mean that if we missed some of these beautiful northern lights last night, we may get a chance?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, you do. You have a second chance and I would like it I actually woke myself up at 11 o'clock to go out.

WALKER: You did.

CHINCHAR: Since I would like a second chance, but yes, if you were the same, if you missed it last night, you want another chance you will have that opportunity tonight.

[06:05:05]

And really in places that you wouldn't normally think you would see it, you know, take a look at this photo, for example, this is one that I just find interesting. It's like the photos you see where you have snow and palm trees in the same spot. This is the same. You've got the Northern Lights, and a palm tree. This taken from just south of Jacksonville, Florida, again, just to show you how far south people are going to be able to see something like this.

And again, yes, we will have another opportunity here. You can kind of see how far south a lot of this stretches. Now, we peaked at a G5 event that's the highest on the scale. Yesterday, the last time prior to that was back in 2003. So it's been 20 years, since we've had an event of this magnitude.

Again, tonight, we're going to see another event that's relatively strong. So here you can see Saturday making it up to that severe geomagnetic storm K index level, meaning again, if you missed it last night, you will have that other opportunity again tonight.

Now the question is when exactly. When should I go out? Is that 8:00 p.m., 2:00 a.m., it's going to be on the earlier end. So here you can see about 5:00 to 8:00 pm. Yes, I'm aware the sun is still out at 5:00 pm. But that means is whenever you finally have sunset where you live, that's going to be the best time basically from about 7:00 to 10:00 or 11:00 pm. The earlier you can go out and the better, you're going to have the viewing so on the front end of this, and then gradually it will taper off as we go into the day Sunday.

So what you're actually seeing here, this is a great example. This yellow dot is the sun. This is the earth. These are the actual solar winds. Here's that first wave that took place yesterday. Now you can start to see the second wave. That's the one that's going to come in later on today that we will anticipate seeing later on this evening. So again, getting that second shot at being able to see that.

Now in terms of where really the farther north you are, obviously you're going to have a better place. But even if we live in some of these yellow areas here, you still have that chance. Yes, that includes places like Birmingham, Atlanta, even over towards Dallas. The concerning point is going to be clouds though, because we've got a lot of them that are going to be focused on like over Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, that's going to be probably the biggest thing that would hinder people would be some of those clouds.

WALKER: Well, for this solar storm. We'll call it the southern lights too, right, and I just don't know, though -- BLACKWELL: Can we also point out that Allison is always dressed for the weather. She's wearing her Aurora dress today. We always have to shout out the wardrobe.

WALKER: Miss festival.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

WALKER: She's always matching the theme. Thanks Allison.

BLACKWELL: Got to coordinate. Coordinate.

WALKER: Coordinating with the solar system. Well, while the storm has the possibility for major impacts. It's also really beautiful to look at if you've seen the photos.

BLACKWELL: With us now is the CEO and founder of Janet's planet, Janet Ivey. Janet, good to see you. You know, so you have the solar eclipse in April. Now you've got this coronal mass ejection in May, which every time I say it, it feels a little naughty to say.

WALKER: Sounds like you know.

BLACKWELL: Coronal mass ejection. The space enthusiast are having a moment, how special is what we're seeing in the skies?

JANET IVEY, DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION, EXPLORE MARS: Oh, it's incredibly special. And I think it's sort of very pertinent that it's like most of these solar flares, you know, have been occurring almost a month to the date of the solar eclipse. So I'm saying the sun is going Hey, Moon, you had your chance to occlude me, I'm back and showing out.

So last night, it was incredible. We were calling our kids and grandkids go and go outside, it was nine o'clock. And it was spectacular. So tonight if you want to go out and see these because I have people also texting me, Janet, I can't see it, Our visible eyes like we can't quite see it with the naked eye. We'll see kind of like, oh my gosh, I think there's something there. If you put your camera on portrait mode with night mode on that is when I got my best pictures.

But again, it's important to remember as Allison was telling us is that this is an X class flare. It's the highest ever and a solar flare. And a coronal mass ejection is kind of like it's like this huge explosion on the sun. Think about it as a tight rubber band and all of a sudden, ah, it breaks apart.

But here's what's fun today. And over the next few days. If you still have those eclipse glasses --

BLACKWELL: Hey, there they are.

IVEY: Here they are. You can take these out today and see if you can spot the sunspots. There are two humongous sunspots, one's called like 3664, 3668. They kind of merge. It is 16 times the diameter of Earth it should be humongous. And this is a great repurpose. Remember do not go outside today and look up at the sun without proper

eye protection. But if you still have the solar eclipse glasses laying around somewhere, go outside take a peek because what an amazing event we're getting to go here. Normally you going to go to Sweden or Iceland see the northern lights, right.

[06:10:00]

WALKER: Yes. But, yes, we can just be here in the south and still see it although I don't know that I have my clip glass --

BLACKWELL: Oh, everybody right now and then we start digging somewhere.

WALKER: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Look at junk drawer, I know it is somewhere.

WALKER: Yes. You know, what about in terms -- well, first off, don't we have photos? Guys, we have photos that Janet took last night from the Northern Lights.

IVEY: Yes.

WALKER: Tell us what you saw because the pictures you took are just stunning and where you were?

IVEY: Well, I was literally on our back deck in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and we're looking up, and it's like, I went, what kind of -- like I wasn't going to get up until like 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., when it was first said that you might be visible. But I get a picture from a friend of mine from across the lake, and they're like, go outside. And it was so spectacular.

What you can kind of see is that you could sort of see some movement, you're like, whoa, is that it? So as I put my camera up there, both my husband and I were like calling the kids and everything going go outside and take a picture of this. But it was these beautiful pinks, and greens and all a just gorgeous stuff.

And again, to remember that it's like when those high energy particles hit our magnetosphere, it excites these gases. So if you're seeing green, that's mean it's interacting, oxygen has gotten excited up there in the upper atmosphere, blue, red or pink, that's interaction with nitrogen, you get orange almost, it's like neon, you're getting those kinds of purples. That's when it's like super stupendous. It's as high energy electrons interacting with oxygen and hydrogen. But it was gorgeous.

And we were out there about 90 minutes and we kept going, this is a lot more warm than we were when we were in Iceland, back in 2016 watching them, but still so amazing. And, you know, you were mentioning that we ought to call them the Southern Lights since we're down here in the south and they're going so far. It reminded me of that Brad Paisley song about I've kissed a southern girl under the Northern Lights. So I had my -- I made my husband kiss me and I thought this is a country song here.

BLACKWELL: You created a moment for yourself under the glowing sky. Janet Ivey, always getting us excited about science and what's above. Thanks so much for being with us.

IVEY: Always. Thank you.

WALKER: Coronal mass ejection. I want to say that too.

BLACKWELL: Coronal mass ejection.

WALKER: Coronal mass ejection. Thanks so much, Janet.

BLACKWELL: Donald Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen is set to face off with his former boss in court on Monday what to expect when the star witness takes the stand in Trump's high stakes criminal hush money trial.

WALKER: Plus, the family of a black airman is shot and killed in his own apartment by a Florida sheriff's deputy is demanding answers. The new videos showing a minute by minute account of the deadly confrontation.

BLACKWELLL And thousands of people in southern Gaza are evacuating Rafah as the Israeli military steps up its war on Hamas. President Biden's warning is Israel crosses his red line, ahead.

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[06:17:38]

WALKER: Former fixer and ex Attorney Michael Cohen is expected to take the stand on Monday and the former President Donald Trump's hush money trial. Cohen will come face to face with his former boss and testify to his role in negotiating the hush money payment deal to Stormy Daniels on Trump's behalf and how Trump reimbursed him.

BLACKWELL: On Friday the judge asked prosecutors to tell Michael Cohen to stop talking about Trump after defense attorneys told the judge of a recent TikTok video in which Cohen was wearing a shirt with a picture of Trump behind bars. CNN's Kara Scannell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Prosecutor star witness Michael Cohen is expected to testify on Monday in former President Donald Trump's hush money trial. Cohen, Trump's former attorney and fixer is at the crux of the criminal case against him. Prosecutors say Cohen paid off adult film star Stormy Daniels on Trump's behalf to kill her story of an alleged affair before the 2016 election. Trump denies the affair.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Somebody paid the lawyer and then paying the lawyer, so it was a legal expense that somebody happened to be made. I didn't do the bookkeeping, I didn't even know about it. This is what the case is about. SCANNELL (voice-over): Cohen told his political Beatdown podcast co- host on Thursday that he looks forward to testify.

MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: Sooner this thing starts, the sooner this thing finishes.

SCANNELL (voice-over): After a defense request Judge Juan Merchan told prosecutors he wants Cohen to keep quiet about the case before he takes the stand. But he can't issue a gag order on a witness, something Trump expressed frustration about.

TRUMP: There is no gag order to Michael Cohen. What the judge did was amazing actually, was amazing. Everybody can say whatever they want. They can say whatever they want. I'm not allowed to say anything about anybody. It's a disgrace.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Today, prosecutors called witnesses to the stand to help lay the groundwork for Cohen's upcoming testimony. And AT and T analyst introduced Cohen's phone records. And back on the stand Trump's former White House aide Madeleine Westerhout testified about Trump's reaction to the release of Daniels' story in 2018.

Westerhout testified Trump was upset by it and her understanding was that it would be hurtful to his family. She later clarified Trump did not specifically speak about his family in that conversation.

[06:20:00]

And Trump's lawyer suggested he made the $130,000 hush money pay off to Daniels in order to protect his family. Meanwhile, prosecutors argue he did it to influence the 2016 election which was two weeks away and came on the heels of the Access Hollywood tape damaging his campaign.

TRUMP: And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Trump's lawyer Susan Necheles asked Westerhout about the process of Trump signing checks. Westerhout said Trump would sign them while multitasking doing things like talking on the phone or meeting with people. She described FedExing the sign checks back to the Trump Organization. Prosecutors used Westerhout to show the chain of command of checks like the one sent to Cohen to reimburse him for the hush money. Cohen testified before Congress about the allegations in 2019.

ELIJAH CUMMINGS, FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Donald Trump wrote you a check out of his personal account while he was serving as President of the United States of America to reimburse you for hush money payments.

COHEN: Yes, Mr. Chairman,

SCANNELL (voice-over): Today another witness a paralegal at the district attorney's office read one of Trump's tweets about the monthly payments to Cohen, which Trump called a retainer. Trump said Mr. Cohen and attorney received a monthly retainer not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign.

The tweet came around the time his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani told Fox News host Sean Hannity that Trump reimburse Cohen for the hush money that Cohen paid for it out of his own pocket.

RUDY GIULIANI, TRUMP FORMER ATTORNEY: having something to do with paying some Stormy Daniels, woman, 130,000 I mean, which is going to turn out to be perfectly legal. That money was not campaign money. They funneled it through the law firm. Funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it.

SCANNELL: That kept a week where the jury saw the documents that were allegedly falsified the invoices, the general ledger entries and the checks. They also heard from the woman at the center of these hush money payments Stormy Daniels. Next week, Michael Cohen will be facing off in court against the man he once said he would take a bullet for prosecutors say they may rest their case by the end of the week. Victor, Amara.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Kara Scannell reporting for us. Thanks so much. Joining me now is Bernarda Villalona, a criminal defense attorney and former New York prosecutor. Bernarda, good to see you again.

All right, Michael Cohen, the moment many people have been waiting for in this trial. The prosecutors will call him. They have called other witnesses and introduced other evidence. So the jury will not be expected to rely exclusively on his word because he is a convicted liar. How do you expect the state will approach their direct with him.

BERNARDA VILLALONA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Vic, I expect fireworks inside of that courtroom next week. Next week is going to be officially known as Michael Cohen week. So in terms of how the prosecution is going to address Michael Cohen, they're going to go into his background because they have to try to build up his credibility and also get in front of the credibility issues in the sense of having to bring out his criminal record, his past inconsistent statements, his podcasts, his social media posts and his apparent hatred towards Donald Trump, because that is something that he will be crossed on, just like Stormy Daniels was crossed on about his feelings towards Donald Trump.

So the prosecution is going to try to get in front of it. And its sense of trying to deflate the below for when cross examination actually starts. In the end when it comes to witnesses like Michael Cohen, yes, they're not trying to vote for their credibility. They're not trying to make them look as a good person. They're presented to the jury because this is a type of witness that Donald Trump created.

BLACKWELL: Now, the Trump attorneys asked the judge to issue a gag order for Michael Cohen. He said he couldn't do that. But he instructed the prosecutors to tell -- him essentially, tell him, I said to stop talking about this case that from a judge, right, tell him I said. Now, if Michael Cohen does not do that, is there some adverse impact for Cohen for the prosecutors? VILLALONA: So it sort of reminded me like when your mom and dad said --

BLACKWELL: Right.

VILLALONA: -- or mom said --

BLACKWELL: Right.

VILLALONA: -- I said, this is what you're supposed to. Look, if Michael Cohen continues to give these statements in the media, even though the judge is directing him not to, is he going to be fine? Will there be a gag order? Absolutely not. Whoa, what it will create is going to create an issue for his credibility in terms of cross examination where defense attorneys have gone to are you weren't you told and directed by the judge not to make statements having to deal with Donald Trump? Yes, I was told and you continue to make these statements against Donald Trump.

So you lawfully did not listen to the -- what the judge's orders were just like how you don't listen to the orders and you're not taking this oath that you took and seriously. So, in that sense, that's how he's going to be cross examined having to deal with these constant statements and every statement he makes.

[06:25:00]

He's going to be cross examined on that's why I say it's going to be Michael Cohen week because he's going to be on the stand for a long time.

BLACKWELL: Well, if next week is Michael Cohen week and this week was Stormy Daniels week because she was on for, I believe seven plus hours and was really the majority of that was from the cross examination from the defense attorneys.

Some of it appeared to be and these are legal analysts not coming directly from me, directed by the client, Donald Trump and pushing some of the inconsistencies and going after some elements that are not directly related to this case.

How does that or what insight does that give us into how you expect Michael Cohen will be treated once the Trump defense attorneys have their say?

VILLALONA: Yes, so definitely felt that the defense attorneys were catering not just to the jury when they were cross examining Stormy Daniels, but more to the media to the public to the court of opinion. The same is going to happen but even worse when it comes to Michael Cohen, because Donald Trump, I think he won't be able to contain himself. He wants to go at Michael Cohen and now he's going to be a few feet away from Michael Cohen inside of that courtroom.

So I think it's going to be directed a lot by Donald Trump for cross examination, but I hope that the defense attorneys don't lose sight of what their purpose is and who they should be catering to, which is those 12 jurors that are going to make the determination as to Donald Trump's guilt.

BLACKWELL: All right, Monday, could be the day. Bernarda Villalona, thanks so much.

WALKER: Still to come. We have body cam footage of the moment of black airman was shot and killed at his home by a sheriff's deputy, what his family is saying about the shooting, next.

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[06:30:00]

BLACKWELL: Overnight, a powerful geomagnetic storm dazzled parts of the world with the aurora borealis. This was the view in Florida. Florida got this show. Just a few hours ago, most of the Midwest and northwest also got a chance to view the northern lights.

So, what happens here is a series of solar flares and launch these particles directly at earth, and they create these spectacular light shows when they reach our planet's magnetic field.

WALKER: The colors are just stunning in the skies over the U.K., vivid greens and purples on Friday night, they are likely to see them again tonight. And in the southern hemisphere, it was the aurora australis over New Zealand and Argentina.

Switching gears now. And a Florida family is demanding justice after 23-year-old Air Force Airman, Roger Fortson was shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy inside his own home.

BLACKWELL: The Okaloosa County sheriff released body-cam video of that fatal shooting, and he's disputing the family's claim that his deputy went to the wrong apartment. Now, we're going to warn you here that some of what you're about to see is disturbing. CNN's Nick Valencia has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Newly obtained police dispatch audio reveals the first call came in around 4:00 p.m. on May 3rd, about a physical disturbance in progress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't have any further other than a male and female. It's all fourth party information through the front desk at the leasing office.

VALENCIA: Around 4:29 p.m., the four-minute police body camera video begins with an Okaloosa County, Florida sheriff's deputy arriving on the scene.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Saying that it happens frequently?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But this kind of sounding like it was getting out of hand. VALENCIA: A woman at the complex tells the deputy, she heard yells

and a slap coming from the apartment two weeks ago, but wasn't sure exactly where it came from. Eventually, she directs the deputy to fourth floor apartment 1401, the home of 23-year-old senior airman, Roger Fortson, saying the girl who made the call about the physical disturbance sounded scared.

At 4:31p.m., the deputy knocks once without introducing himself. Roughly 30 seconds later, he knocks again twice. A warning, what you're about to see over the next 20 seconds is graphic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Step back.

(GUNFIRE)

VALENCIA: Fortson, who appears in the body camera video to have a lowered firearm in his right hand was shot six times to the chest. He survived the initial shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three-twelve, get you, messed(ph) my location.

VALENCIA: But was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

CHANTERNEKKI FORTSON, ROGER FORTSON'S MOTHER: My baby was my everything. Roger was my third son. Where we come from, you don't end up what Roger end up.

VALENCIA: Adding to their pain, Fortson's family believes deputies went to the wrong address, a claim that the sheriff disputed while defending his deputy's actions. Ben Crump, Natalie Jackson and Brian Barr(ph)represent the family. They say the initial police statement was misleading and left out key details of the shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes you think this happened outside. That this kid was in the middle of a disturbance, and he did something. He instigated this and lost his life. That's what it makes it sound like. It sounded like justified.

ERIC ADEN, SHERIFF, OKALOOSA COUNTY, FLORIDA: We are aware of a press release and other comments that falsely state our deputy entered the wrong apartment and imply that they burst through the door into Mr. Fortson's residence.

[06:35:00]

VALENCIA: During the shooting, the airman was on a FaceTime call with his girlfriend who Crump says told him there was never a disturbance at Fortson's home. Crump says Fortson had been home alone just 30 minutes before the deputy arrived. He heard two knocks at the door, and when he couldn't see anyone through the peep-hole, Crump said citing the girlfriend, then Fortson grabbed his gun which Crump said he legally owned.

In the girlfriend's FaceTime video, we hear Fortson struggled to breathe after the shooting as he lies on the floor bleeding out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do not move, stop moving!

VALENCIA: The deputy is now on paid administrative leave while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates.

(on camera): The state attorney's office in Okaloosa County tells me that they are going to wait for the FDLE to finish their investigation before they decide whether to pursue charges. I did get in touch with the chief assistant state attorney there in the county who tells me that he did see the video, but he refused to comment, adding that it's too early for them to do anything with the case.

He also said that there's no expected timeline as to when the FDLE will wrap their investigation. Nick Valencia, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Nick Valencia, thank you for that report. All right, still to come, why the Biden administration has stopped short of officially saying Israel violated the law in Gaza, despite a U.S. report on potential incidents.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:00]

BLACKWELL: Breaking overnight, at least 47 Palestinians were killed by Israeli airstrikes, among those killed were children, according to three hospitals in the area. Now, the Israeli military is ordering Palestinians to immediately evacuate more neighborhoods in Rafah. More than a 100,000 have already left.

A spokesperson for the army is warning people who live in that part of Gaza to head to a humanitarian area.

WALKER: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to continue military operations against Hamas despite the U.S. pausing a bomb shipment to Israel. On Friday, the Biden administration released a new report critical of Israel's use of U.S. weapons. CNN national security correspondent, Kylie Atwood with more.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The Biden administration has determined that it is reasonable to assess that Israel used U.S. weapons in Gaza since October 7th in a way that is inconsistent with international humanitarian law.

But the Department of State stopped short of making a definitive assessment, saying that there are ongoing investigations into specific incidents, of course, specific Israeli strikes in Gaza. We should also note that they did not find that Israel arbitrarily impeded humanitarian assistance from getting in to Gaza.

That's noteworthy because of course, the administration has been repeatedly calling on Israel to let more humanitarian assistance in, but they're making this determination that Israel wasn't keeping out that assistance arbitrarily. Now, we should note that the department makes it very clear that it's hard to make determinations, definitive determinations on these specific Israeli strikes because of the fact that Hamas hides in civilian population centers.

They hide in buildings that are occupied by civilians. It also raises questions, however, about if Israel is actually using the capabilities it has to drive down civilian deaths as part of this war. I want to read to you that portion saying, quote, "while Israel has the knowledge experience and tools to implement best practices for mitigating civilian harm in its military operations, the results on the ground, including high levels of civilian casualties, raise substantial questions as to whether the IDF is using them effectively in all cases."

Now, we should note that Senator Van Hollen who has been an advocate for this report is not happy after receiving it, saying it lacks in- depth investigation, then also saying that the administration ducked all the hard questions. So, he of course, will be probing the administration for more information.

He says it's not credible that humanitarian organizations would have had more information about these Israeli strikes than the U.S. government. Victor, Amara?

WALKER: All right, Kylie Atwood, thank you for that. Joining us now is CNN global affairs analyst, Kimberly Dozier. Kimberly, good to see you this morning. I just want to first get your thoughts on this report and the U.S. State Department looking into whether U.S. weapons used by Israeli forces violated international humanitarian law. Just how significant is this, and also, does this put more pressure on Netanyahu?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, it's a signal, together with Biden's comments to CNN this week, that the U.S. is unhappy with its use of weaponry donated, well, given to it by the United States. And that it's watching, it's a public shaming and a sort of repetition of a lot of things they've been saying in private, and then things that the administration officials have been saying to us in briefings.

It's just ratcheting up the pressure, saying we're watching what you're doing and we're hearing your explanations.

[06:45:00]

But some of them beggar belief with the number of civilian casualties we're seeing on the ground. At the same time, the State Department is saying, we don't have people on the ground to collect the independent evidence that we would need to prove war crimes.

The kind of things that the U.N. goes in and literally uses like crime techniques to pick up weaponry from both sides in the aftermath of a bombing to figure out, was there a legitimate Hamas target here that the Israelis used a 2,000-pound bomb to hit in the center of a populated area.

WALKER: I do want to play for you, Kimberly, a portion of this interview, the sit-down exclusive interview that Erin Burnett did this week with President Biden, where he issued this public ultimatum to Israel, specifically Netanyahu, over, you know, his long-planned full- scale invasion of Rafah. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're going to Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities that deal with that problem. But I've made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet, they're not going to get our support if in fact they go on these population centers.

We're not walking away from Israel's security, we're walking away from Israel's ability to wage war in those areas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: So, despite this explicit warning and the U.S. withholding weapons and that they had to withhold more, you expect Netanyahu to move forward with this full-scale invasion?

DOZIER: Well, with an invasion in slices probably, that seems to be how they're doing it right now. It seems to be that they've caught the overall Rafah campaign into smaller battles, and while they've ringed much of the city with tanks, they're doing it sector by sector and warning people as they go.

Apparently, indifference to calls from the White House and the West not to do a full-scale invasion, and yet, there are ground troops involved, and there are major parts of the city that are being evacuated. And of course, the U.N. has been complaining the place that they're being sent to has little or no supplies.

One of the areas, Mawasi, where Israelis are telling people to go to, is a tent camp that already has about 400,000 people. It's got a small U.N. clinic, but it's essentially some fields by a beach. There are no water supplies, there's intermittent electricity supplies that have been sort of run from cables from populated areas, and people really have no safe place to go.

So, no matter how Netanyahu was trying to slice this, it's still spelling a future confrontation with the White House.

WALKER: Remind us of what the humanitarian catastrophe could look like, and why this is such a red line for the Biden administration. And also, a little bit about Netanyahu and you know, his calculus. Obviously, there's a lot of politics at play here.

DOZIER: Right, well, I think Netanyahu, from his perspective, the more Biden tells him not to do something, he almost feels that has to do it to satisfy his hard right part of his government. In his war cabinet, he has members of the opposition, but the people making up his government, they're the ones who have been pushing for cutting off all humanitarian aid to Gaza and smashing through Rafah to defeat Hamas as a way to release the hostages.

So, he's caught in that equation. But in terms of the humanitarian catastrophe that the U.S. is worried about, we know that there was up to 1.5 million extra people sheltering in Rafah who fled from fighting in the rest of the country. They really can't get back to much of the north because so many of the roads have been blown apart.

And somewhere between 150 to 400,000 have already fled and are more -- are preparing to leave Rafah right now. But again, they're headed to places like Mawasi, and a couple of other tent camps that the U.N. and other aid agencies are having trouble supplying.

And that also, aren't safe places to go, in that Mawasi has been hit by Israeli bombing a number of times. Maybe it won't be this time, but from the perspective of people fleeing, that's not much of a comfort that maybe they'll be safe there this time.

WALKER: Yes, perhaps a humanitarian area is a misnomer. Kimberly Dozier, I appreciate you joining us this morning. Thanks so much, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:50:00]

WALKER: From world renowned athlete to convicted murderer, months after his release from prison, still so many questions surround Oscar Pistorius.

BLACKWELL: Yes, he spent nearly nine years behind bars for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Remember, the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Early in the morning of February the 14th, the neighbors woke up to pa-pa-pa --

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The first people who arrived found a really gruesome scene. They saw a man carrying a woman down the stairs and he was hysterical. He laid her body at the bottom of the stairs on the tiles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was bathed in blood and shrieking and howling and crying.

[06:55:00]

OSCAR PISTORIUS, FORMER SOUTH AFRICAN PARALYMPIC ATHLETE: As I sat through with it, I waited full evidence to love(ph). I felt hopeless, I wanted to take her to the hospital, I was trying to stop the bleeding.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oscar Pistorius tried to save her, others there tried to save her, but there was nothing that they could do for her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Tune in tomorrow at 9:00 p.m. Eastern for "HOW IT REALLY HAPPENED", Oscar Pistorius, the blade runner.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Good morning, good morning. What are you laughing at?

WALKER: What happened to your dancing to the music like you're ready to go to the club.

BLACKWELL: Is all -- isn't told Tapper.