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Two National Guardsmen Remain in Critical Condition After D.C. Shooting; Trump Admin Pauses All Immigration for Afghan Nationals; Millions of Veterans Facing Food Insecurity on Thanksgiving. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired November 27, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard two shots, then I heard four shots consecutively.

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AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Two National Guardsmen shot in the streets of D.C. and what President Trump is calling an act of terror. He's now ordering more National Guard troops into the city.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: If they can't love our country, we don't want them.

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CORNISH: So the suspect in the shooting identified as an Afghan national and the president now vowing to ramp up his immigration crackdown.

And 24 hours after flames first ripped through high rises in Hong Kong, crews are still battling the fire and working to rescue people thought to be trapped in those smoldering buildings.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So far, it looks like emptier than usual.

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CORNISH: Okay. You made it to your Thanksgiving destination, your trip home, however, maybe a mess. The storm system that will hit right after the holiday.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: they're the last person in this country that should ever have to ask for a handout.

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CORNISH: This Thanksgiving, many veterans may not have food on their plates. The mission to help the men and women who served our nation.

And a word of advice this morning, if you haven't started cooking that Turkey, you might be cooked. We have experts here to assist as we talk Turkey with butterball.

Exactly, it's 7:00 A.M. here on the East Coast. This is a live look at New York City where crowds are probably gathering for the parade. Good morning, everybody. Yes, it is Thursday, November 27th. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you for waking up with me.

We're going to start with some serious snooze. An act of terror, that's what the president is calling an assault on two National Guardsmen in the nation's capital. So, the two soldiers remain in critical condition this morning after police say they were both shot at point blank range, just blocks away from the White House.

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LEILA CHRISTOPHER, D.C. SHOOTING WITNESS: We saw one National Guardsman being wheeled out on a stretcher and he had a device helping pump his heart, it looked like, doing automatic, like CPR, and his face was covered in blood.

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CORNISH: The 29-year-old suspect was tackled at the scene after a brief exchange of gunfire. Law enforcement say he came to the U.S. from Afghanistan about four years ago. In response, the president vows to crack down on immigration even further.

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TRUMP: We are not going to put up with these kind of assaults on law and order by people who shouldn't even be in our country. We must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country.

If they can't love our country, we don't want them.

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CORNISH: We've got CNN Senior White House Reporter Betsy Klein here. Now, Betsy, we heard the president basically condemning this as an act of terror, but also expanding his concerns to immigration more broadly. I think he brought up Somalia at one point. Can you talk about what the plans are out of the White House?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right, Audie. Just a really horrific day here in Washington, and the Department of Homeland Security has identified Rahmanullah Lakanwal as the suspect in the shooting of these two National Guardsmen. Lakanwal is an Afghan national. He came to the United States in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome. To remind you, that's the Biden era program that resettled those Afghan nationals in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He applied for asylum in 2024, and it was granted by the Trump administration in April of this year. He is in custody at an area hospital after being shot.

Now, one source tells CNN that this suspect is not cooperating with investigators. We still do not know the motive. We do not know how the suspect got this handgun that he used. We also do not know full extent of the suspect's injuries at this time. But we do expect to hear more on where this investigation stands from D.C. U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro, as well as FBI Director Kash Patel, a little later this morning.

President Trump meanwhile addressing the nation from Mar-a-Lago last night, he cast blame on the Biden administration for letting the suspect into the country. He called for the reexamination of every person who entered the U.S. from Afghanistan during the last administration. Of course CNN had reported earlier this week that that process was already underway.

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Listen to the president.

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TRUMP: The suspect in custody is a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on Earth. He was flown in by the Biden administration in September 2021.

This attack underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation. The last administration led in 20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners from all over the world, from places that you don't want to even know about.

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KLEIN: Now, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have announced moments later that all Afghan immigrant cases are stopping indefinitely, pending further review.

And I also just want to remind you why these West Virginia Guardsmen were here. They have been deployed in Washington since August as part of the president's crime crackdown. That is expected to continue until at least February. President Trump also announced he would be deploying 500 more National Guards members to Washington, D.C., in response to this horrific shooting.

CORNISH: Okay. Betsy, thanks so much for that update.

I'm going to turn a little bit to the investigation. The FBI is going to be spearheading it and it's being called an attack on federal law enforcement.

So, we've got CNN Law Enforcement Analyst Jonathan Wackrow here now to talk about how this will unfold. Jonathan, thanks for being here with us this morning.

I want to start with what they're going to be looking for from the suspect. As we mentioned, they're Afghan National believed to have come in under one of the various asylum programs, which did include vetting. So, there's documentation, right, to go and look and learn about this suspect.

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes. Good morning, Audie. Yes, the suspect came to the United States in '21, and that's the starting point for investigators, right, like understanding you know, what happened during that vetting process, how detailed and what was the rigor of the information that they were reviewing at that time.

But, you know, just the fact that, you know, he came in under the U.S. asylum -- you know, seeking U.S. asylum in '21, it's a relevant fact, but it's actually not the motive. And right now, what investigators are trying to do is actually ask a couple key questions, most notably is, was this a symbolic targeting of the military or some sort of anti-government movement, or was this just, you know, rooted in some type of personal grievance?

And the way that they're going to do that is the same way that they take, you know, any type of, you know, shooting situation is they work backwards. They start looking at all known associates, family members, they start doing a digital trace and looking -- you know, combing through the digital exhaust of this individual. You know, was he connected to other people who had or exhibited animus towards, you know, the United States? Was this part of some sort of ideological movement? Again, that's where we may see a nexus to terrorism. We have not seen that yet, and we have not intimated that that is the case, but that is what investigators are looking for. And they're going to look through this link analysis of these associates and contacts to really piece together this mosaic of data to come to a determination of what is the motive.

Now, we know that the suspect is not cooperating but there are a lot of investigative tools and techniques that are at the FBI's disposal to get to, you know, directionally what that motive may be.

CORNISH: The Trump administration now ordering another 500 National Guardsmen into the city. One thing we've been looking at today is that in the legal challenge process, there was a National Guard memo that had revealed some concerns about the deployment that commanders originally had, where they were basically saying, this mission is kind of an opportunity for criminals or violent extremists or lone actors to advance their interests. They were saying that the Guardsmen themselves are sort of high visible and potential targets. Can you talk about that from a law enforcement perspective?

WACKROW: Yes, absolutely. And, you know, I had mentioned this yesterday in the aftermath of the tragic incident. But right now, we've seen a shift, and what I said is that, you know, I believe that we've hit the point of marginal utility, especially in Washington, D.C., with the benefit of the National Guard. And what I mean by that is, you know, they are on site to provide a visual deterrent to show that visible force of, you know, surging law enforcement within the national capital region. But now it has shifted. We've heard from government officials say that these Guardsmen were targeted directly.

If that is the case, adding 500 more to the area just increases the, you know, potential, you know, targeting of these National Guard members. Now, you do have to address this crime in broader, you know, criminal acts throughout the area. I'd rather see more law enforcement than more soldiers put at risk in a mission that may be a little bit undefined for them.

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CORNISH: Okay. Jonathan Wackrow, thanks so much. Thanks for being with us.

Coming up on CNN This Morning, the extra measures being taken to protect you and your family at today's Thanksgiving parades across the nation.

And lots of moms in California thankful today for an organization that helped them get basic needs after those devastating wildfires.

And as we said, more National Guardsmen being sent to D.C. this morning after yesterday's shooting despite a legal showdown over their deployment to the city. Group chat might have some thoughts on that, next.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I'm sure the president will be using this as a platform to bring more security into the city, you know, which we don't need.

It's terrible to see this happen in, you know, city that I grew up in.

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CORNISH: Okay. Our breaking news this morning, President Trump says he is going to send 500 more troops to Washington, D.C., after two National Guard members were shot and critically injured, just blocks from the White House. The administration has filed an emergency order seeking to block a federal judge's ruling that was set to end that months-long deployment of troops in D.C. The judge had ruled it unlawful.

And after the shooting suspect was identified as an Afghan national, the president says, the U.S. must, quote, reexamine all Afghan nationals who came to the under the Biden administration.

So here in the group chat today, Stephen Collinson and our CNN Politics Senior Reporter, retired Colonel Cedric Leighton, our CNN Military Analyst, and Bryan Lanza, a senior adviser for the 2024 Trump campaign, and last but not least, Meghan Hays, former White House director of message planning under President Biden. I want to take stock of this with the group because we're hearing about an ongoing investigation. People are going to be looking into this suspect, and we don't have very many details except somewhat the timeline of his travel to the U.S. beginning in 2021 and with his approval of asylum in April of just this past year. Can you talk about that path, like what do we know about the world of Afghan nationals that were brought to the U.S. after the fall of Kabul?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Audie, good morning. There are a lot of different things, different streams that really came together when Kabul was falling. And what you had was people who were dealing with the U.S., had dealt with the U.S. throughout the entire period of Operation Enduring Freedom, as the military operation was now.

CORNISH: So, these are Afghans who were helping the U.S. in some way during the war? Most of them were translators for the U.S. they would go into the field with the troops. So many of them have combat experience as a result of that. A lot of them were also supporting the U.S. military through administrative processes. They provided administrative help. They provided linguistic help, logistical help, all of those kinds of things. So, in essence, they were part of the backbone of the U.S. deployments to Afghanistan. And as a result of that, when Kabul was about to fall, the decision was made to bring many of them, as many as could be brought out of Afghanistan to the United States or to other countries.

CORNISH: And we have that number. I think since 2021, around 190,000 Afghans have resettled in the U.S. Now, this is in question. The president is saying this attack shows we need to re-vet people. What does that mean from a military perspective? I don't know like how you do that basically.

LEIGHTON: Yes, that's actually a difficult issue and it actually goes beyond what the military purview is in a case like this because vetting for people who come to the United States, even if they support the military, usually goes through immigration --

CORNISH: State Department, yes.

LEIGHTON: State Department, immigration, naturalization service, the intelligence agencies, so FBI, law enforcement. Those elements are involved when we've had other movements of refugees. For example, Kurdish refugees came in the 90s because of the situation in Iraq at the time. And they were moved first to Guam where the vetting process occurred there. I was actually part of that particular movement, for that particular deployment.

And we vetted along with the interagency, as it's called basically CIA, FBI, the other national intelligence agencies, to determine whether or not these people were members of terrorist groups, whether they were members of extremist groups. If they were, they were not allowed into the United States. The vetting process there was very extensive. So that was in the 90s. Now, fast forward to what happened with the Afghan refugees, many of them were initially vetted in Qatar and other places like that, but Qatar was basically the big transit point for them. And then they were moved to places in Germany, and from Germany to the U.S., many of them. So, in the U.S., by the time they got to the U.S., they were supposed to have been fully vetted.

Now people can change --

CORNISH: This is where all the questions will be. Stephen, it looks like you have some questions here.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Yes. I mean, that was my point. You can vet someone but you can't account for what happens to them after they've been vetted. You know, the experience -- we've seen the experience for some people coming to a western country can be very disorientating.

LEIGHTON: Absolutely.

COLLINSON: People get radicalized online by things in their personal life. So, how much of this is about vetting and how much is it just society?

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We obviously don't know in this case the details, but --

CORNISH: Yes, we're going to know more.

LEIGHTON: And I think in many cases, you know, Stephen, that's an excellent point because, you know, look at what happens to Americans. You know, you've got people like -- you know, let's take an extremist like Timothy McVeigh, for example. You know, you have somebody who had, you know, been vetted at least as far as, you know, joining the military, being able to join the military, and then he became an extremist.

So, extremism is something that you know, really can permeate any group in society and including the military, including law enforcement. And when you have a situation like the Afghans where, you know, your point is absolutely valid. You know, they come in here, this is a completely different culture for them, and then all of a sudden they're confronted by things. They have to find a job, they have to, you know, support their family. In many cases, you've had a situation where people have failed to meet make ends meet.

CORNISH: Right.

LEIGHTON: And so they --

CORNISH: But I don't want to go too far because we're actually still learning about this person.

I want to come to you guys because now it's about how the president reacts, and he has reacted by leaning into the two things that have appeared to be most important to him in terms of his domestic policy, cracking down on immigrants and kind of cracking down on U.S. cities via presence of the military. Do you think this kind of gives him more, I guess, support in both of those missions?

BRYAN LANZA, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: Yes. I would do one correction. You know, he's cracking down on illegal aliens, not immigrants. There's a distinction between legal immigrants who come into this country and illegals who come in. We're 100 percent cracking down on illegals, and that's critical. That's what Republicans want. Apparently, that's what Democrats want now, and it's what the voters want.

As for him reviewing these policies, I think any leader who sees something take place should to review the policies. And he's going to ask for the Afghans to be screened better. He is going to ask for others to be screened. I think that's the right approach. We need to know, you know, was there a failure in the system that allowed somebody to get through, or was this person radicalized here in the U.S.? And if the person was radicalized, was he radicalized against law enforcement or was he radicalized against the U.S. military?

CORNISH: Let me give the last minutes, Meghan.

MEGHAN HAYS, DEMOCRATRIC STRATEGIST: Yes, I think, absolutely. But I also think we had National Guards, people here who were not necessarily still needed, as was mentioned, I think, by a person in the earlier segment. And I just think there's a difference in having folks here to crack down on crime and then they're just walking the streets. And I just -- it's a tough place because you want to have safer streets, but then they are becoming targets, which is a problem. And any person, like you said, can be radicalized. So, how do you stop a crazy person? That is the problem. This person clearly had mental illness. So, it doesn't matter how much that --

CORNISH: Actually, we don't know that, Meghan, so I don't --

HAYS: Sorry, I went to go too far.

CORNISH: But there's all kinds of reasons --

HAYS: I'm going to go out on limb. But if you go and shoot two people at point blank range, there is something not right there. So, I'm --

LANZA: And I'll go out limb saying, you know, the demonizing of ICE, the demonizing of law enforcement probably led to the radicalization as well. It made somebody feel comfortable to do violence in D.C.

CORNISH: And I won't follow you down that road, but I will say that as we -- U.S. uniforms are a symbol. And it's that symbol becomes controversial because of the way that they're used we can create situations that we're all nervous about.

You guys stay with me after the break on CNN This Morning, 32 floors in five minutes. These are the new details coming out about that fire in Hong Kong. Rescuers remain underway this hour -- work underway this hour as the death toll continues to climb. Plus, they serve their country, but now they face food insecurity here. A conversation ahead about helping veterans, not just today, but every day.

And good morning to you all in Philly. Final preparations underway for the Thanksgiving Day parade there.

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CORNISH: For millions of America's veterans, there's not much to give thanks for as Thanksgiving approaches. Right now, more than 2 million veterans face severe food insecurity. More than 50,000 are homeless or in shelters.

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KARA PAPPAS, MILITARY FAMILY ADVISORY NETWORK: One in every four military families reports being food insecure. And so as you can imagine, that's being dramatically exacerbated in this moment.

GARY HERBER, VETERAN: The last person in this country that should ever have to ask for a handout from the community to feed their own family is the men and women that wear the cloth of our nation.

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CORNISH: Joining me now to discuss is Jim Whaley. He served two decades in the U.S. Army and is currently the CEO of Mission Roll Call, which is a veterans advocacy group. Thanks so much for being with us.

LT. COL. JIM WHALEY (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Well, Audie, thanks for covering this important subject.

CORNISH: Now, we were talking earlier in the week about SNAP benefits being on the rocks the last couple of months, and I know 42 million people were getting those benefits and I understand that many vets are among that group.

WHALEY: Well, you know, it's important to realize there's 18 million veterans in our country, and when you add in the fact that they have families, dependents, spouses, that's 40 to 50 million veterans. And many of them, as you have already stated, have food insecurity issues. And that's disheartening as we go into the Thanksgiving and holiday season.

CORNISH: So, what does Mission Roll Call do to help in this particular case and what do you think the federal government needs to do?

WHALEY: Well, what we do is make sure that we amplify the voices of those 18 million veterans across our countries and their families and share that data and information and white papers and research with elected officials and those that are making decisions at the V.A. and in the administration, and also share it with good people like yourself so that we can heighten the awareness of the struggle that some of the veterans across our nation have and do our best as a country to stop this.

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It's embarrassing, right, as a country --