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CNN This Morning

Judge Orders Trump To Restore White House Access To CNN, MS NOW, Politico "Immediately"; Netanyahu Warns Mamdani: "I'm Going To tell The Truth About You"; New Video Shows Moments Before Venezuelan Immigrant Shot By ICE. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired September 24, 2026 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:32:35]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Back now to this breaking news. A federal judge ordering the Trump administration to immediately reinstate White House access to three media outlets, including CNN. Now according to the ruling, which came down at 1:00 a.m., Judge Timothy Kelly found that the yanking of the reporters' press badges was done without "constitutionally adequate due process."

The attorney representing CNN, MS NOW and Politico responded to the ruling Thursday, telling CNN, "This is a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law. We greatly appreciate the court's swift action."

CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter walks us through the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: This is an important ruling in support of press freedom, although it is grounded in the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, not the First Amendment. Of course, the First Amendment details the right to a free press and free speech shall not be infringed by the government.

But Judge Kelly here focusing on the Fifth Amendment arguments, as many experts expected and thought that he would. The Fifth Amendment arguments are about due process -- about exactly how this ban was implemented without any advance notice, without any warning, without any ability to test it.

And let me quote from the judge's ruling here. He says, "The general rule is that individuals must receive notice and an opportunity to be heard before the government deprives them of a constitutionally protected interest." Kelly going on to write that "These three banned news outlets have shown they are likely to suffer irreparable harm absent a temporary restraining order."

So he's going ahead and granting that restraining order. It's known as a TRO. It lasts for 14 days, and it's basically a band-aid that judges can apply when there is at the beginning stage of a longer court battle. If something is going on and there's harm being done on a daily basis, the judge can freeze it in place -- can put that TRO in place for 14 days while figuring out next steps. And that's essentially what the judge is doing here, ordering the White House to reverse this ban while the larger issues are thought through.

So the judge here -- he's focusing, as I said, on the due process arguments because everybody in this case agrees that this ban seemingly came out of nowhere. When President Trump announced it last Friday, he was complaining about negative stories and so-called fake news even though these are real news outlets.

[05:35:00]

He was not talking at all about national security. But only in the last 24 hours has the Justice Department started to emphasize national security, making claims about these news outlets somehow threatening the U.S. when, of course, these journalists and these outlets are just trying to report the news in the public interest.

So, essentially, you've had changing messaging, changing explanations and justifications. The judge, I think, has seen right through that, and he has said there was no due process for the scores of journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico who all had press passes to access the White House grounds, who have had those passes deactivated?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CORNISH: OK. That was Brian Stelter talking to us about the breaking news about this ruling overnight on the yanking of press passes. We're going to talk to our legal analysts later about how the judge came to his decision.

In the meantime, I want to turn to this -- two major speeches at the U.N. General Assembly happening today. You've got Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Now, Abbas is expected to only appear virtually because the Trump administration refused his visa. Netanyahu -- he will only be in New York for a quick trip, just a few hours for this speech, before he flies back to Israel. He's expected to use his time today at the U.N. to defend Israel's military campaign in Gaza and criticize New York's mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

We've got CNN's Eleni Giokos here to talk more. We know Netanyahu is in the middle of elections back home, but he has taken a lot of time to respond to Mamdani. I just want to play a little sound of you -- sound of Mamdani here to give our listeners a sense of the back and forth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Shame on you, Mr. Mamdani. Shame on you for supporting the Hamas terrorist monsters who butchered our people. Shame on you for inciting riots against New York Jews. I'm coming to the U.N. I'm going to tell the truth about our heroic soldiers, and I'm going to tell the truth about you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: He's in the middle of a war, right? Can you talk about why he's focusing on the --

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yeah.

CORNISH: -- mayor of New York?

GIOKOS: Well, he's focusing on him because Zohran Mamdani was talking about the ICC arrest warrants that is out not only for Benjamin Netanyahu but one of his other ministers, as well as for a leader of Hamas. He's categorically denied that. Look, Mamdani cannot enforce an arrest, but he has been very clear about adhering to international law.

The other issue is that when you go to the UNGA, you have immunity because the U.N. offers a free pass for leaders facing any arrest warrant going to the UNGA and leaving. It's not lost on us that it's a very quick trip.

But in terms of messaging here, he has to speak to the domestic issues that he's facing. You mentioned this election at the end of October. He's going to be justifying some of his actions in Gaza, and also perhaps speaking about why the latest 15-point peace plan was rejected by him and his government. So a lot to talk about here.

While he's facing a lot of criticism, by the way, even from EU European leaders during this UNGA, it's also anticipated there will be protest action outside the UNGA against Netanyahu.

CORNISH: I get the sense that, since he's leaving, there's not going to be a whole lot of time for side conversations with other leaders. But the president and the U.S. are having those conversations. And I want to play for you or talk about the Iranian president's speech yesterday, saying that they won't back down.

What do you think is happening on the sidelines with regional leaders?

GIOKOS: Yeah. So what's quite interesting is that we knew that President Trump and a lot of his envoys and mediators are going to be speaking to Gulf states on the sidelines of the UNGA. And when we think of the UNGA, there's a lot of diplomacy that happens. We hear these public speeches, but there's a lot of side conversations. And the messaging from the Gulf states is around what is the off-ramp to this war that was meant to last just a few weeks, and we're seven months in, and there's no clear, you know, way to get out.

President Trump during his speech on the first day was very explicit. He said that I've got a choice. I can either annihilate Iran, or we can get to a deal.

We know that Masoud Pezeshkian, the president of Iran, says we're not going to be bowing down to pressure from the U.S. So take a listen to what he says, because it's quite significant in terms of the pushback while he is on U.S. soil.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASOUD PEZESHKIAN, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The United States president described us as terrorists. We have been the victims of terrorism. We will never bow our head or bend at the knee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: So what we know is that Iran and the United States were shuttling messages through Qatari mediators.

[05:40:00]

Look, the Gulf states really want to find a way forward. And importantly, we're looking at what's happening in Saudi Arabia with the Iranian-backed proxies, the Houthis. President Trump is not going to intervene. They've been very explicit with that. But there's been a question around the viability of the U.S. security umbrella -- security guarantees down the line and how Iran is going to be viewing the Strait of Hormuz, for example, during President Pezeshkian's speech.

There was another incident with the targeting of a vessel and killing one person, which is also very telling in terms of the leverage that Iran has. And also the issues that the Gulf states face as this war, Audie, just drags on.

CORNISH: It's interesting that the U.S. entered this war with Israel, but in all of what you described in the end about side conversations, I don't hear Israel.

GIOKOS: No. Israel is not involved from what we understand. We know Benjamin Netanyahu's trip is going to be very quick. Usually we find out about side conversations with regards to all the parties after the fact. We know that Secretary of State Marco Rubio says there were talks before the UNGA, but there was no breakthrough.

So it's sort of very telling around where we are right now, just ahead of the midterms, frankly, which clearly is an important part of the calendar with regards to what happens next and the support in the United States.

CORNISH: Eleni Giokos, thank you so much. Great context heading into the day. Appreciate you.

And next on CNN THIS MORNING, we've got continuing coverage of the reversal of that White House media ban. We are going to be talking to a former federal prosecutor, getting into the details of what the judge had to say in his ruling.

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[05:46:12]

CORNISH: OK, we continue to follow breaking news, a historic victory for press freedom. A federal judge has ordered CNN's press passes at the White House be restored along with those of MS NOW and Politico. Now, this comes after President Trump banned CNN and the other outlets late last week.

The judge writing, "Plaintiffs and the public have an abiding interest in maintaining the status quo ante given the importance of the free press, which 'stands as one of the great interpreters between the government and the people.'"

Alyse Adamson is here to talk with us. She's a former federal prosecutor, host of the "At Least You Heard It" podcast.

OK, Elyse, I know you've been looking at this order now. This is a 14- day temporary restraining order declining this stay.

Can you talk about what that means for the kind of case overall?

ALYSE ADAMSON, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, HOST, "AT LEAST YOU HEARD IT" PODCAST: Yes, that's great, Audie. So this is temporary, although it is a very consequential preliminary victory for the media outlets, including CNN.

What this means is that these hard passes, which had been revoked from journalists last Friday, must be restored immediately, and journalists will now be allowed back on the White House grounds. But as you already noted, Audie, this is a 14-day order, and that is to allow the case to make its way through the system. This was always a request for emergency relief. It was not decided on the merits is what we say in the legal community. So now it's going to go up to the D.C. Circuit.

And what DOJ -- that's who's representing the White House -- is going to argue is that they should actually issue a stay as they continue to battle this in court and try to keep those journalists out. However, because we are talking about constitutional infringements on free speech, at this point I do think it is probably unlikely that a court will issue that stay, but that is certainly what we can expect DOJ to be arguing in the coming days.

CORNISH: And to that point, the -- us going to the -- CNN kind of going to the judge and saying, hey, we need to deal with this now while it's in court, we need to do the job of journalism while this is in court, the judge actually looked at the Fifth Amendment for this ruling about the issue of due process, saying "...likelihood of success, at least on their Fifth Amendment procedural due process claim."

It sounds like what I'm seeing in this ruling is, hey, you didn't give these guys warning before you yanked their passes. And right away, we can at least rule on that -- that that isn't going to fly.

ADAMSON: That's right. So that was the cleanest way to handle this matter right now. There were really two different constitutional issues. There was the First Amendment that was the retaliation and the viewpoint discrimination. That was the First Amendment free speech considerations.

But then there was that due process where the passes were revoked without notice. And there's actually binding authority -- legal authority that says before you infringe on that First Amendment right, you have to lay out a process. You have to articulate standards that journalists are supposed to conform to, and then also articulate what are the consequences if you do not conform to those standards. The White House failed to do that and, in fact, the first mention of process at all was in DOJ's filing against the lawsuit.

And so I think what this judge saw was that you cannot retroactively apply a process that was put in place after the harm, that being the revocation of the hard passes, was already suffered by the journalists. And so it was a very glaring due process violation, and I think that's why the judge was able to decide it so quickly on those grounds rather than really touching on the First Amendment concerns.

[05:50:07]

CORNISH: A short time left because this is the road ahead, the White House saying this is of national security interest, their decision. The judge was actually writing in his ruling, look, the "Court is skeptical..." -- he used that word -- "...at least on this record, that defendants' interest in safeguarding national security is the actual motivation for, or is even advanced by the revocation of the plaintiffs' hard passes."

What -- who does this go to next? Who's going to really decide on those issues?

ADAMSON: Yeah. Again, the case is now going to be going up to the D.C. Circuit. So when we say who's going to decide, they're going to continue to duke this out with the temporary restraining order, the preliminary injunction that means what is going to happen as they reach these merits.

But the case will go like any other case. It'll probably come back to the district court, then we're going to have rulings on the merits, meaning these actual arguments are going to be briefed and argued. Then it will go back up to the D.C. Circuit. That is that intermediate appellate court. And then finally it might make its way all the way to the Supreme Court because we are talking about consequential constitutional issues.

I will just say one thing about this national security interest, which was advanced later in DOJ's briefing. Of course, the executive branch does have an interest in national security issues, and the courts afford deference to the administration. However, on this record, the chronology speaks for itself. On Friday, when the passes were revoked, the Trump administration made it clear that this was actually about negative reporting and what they saw as fake news. And I think the judge will have that chronology in front of them when they make these rulings and make these findings a fact.

CORNISH: OK, that's Alyse Adamson. Thank you so much.

And next on CNN THIS MORNING, there's actually new video that's raised questions about the latest shooting by an ICE officer. You've got agents who shot a driver in Austin. The situation started unfolding well before shots were actually fired.

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[05:56:33]

CORNISH: We've got new video from police and social media offering a new look at the moments before a Venezuelan immigrant was shot by ICE agents in Texas.

CNN's Ed Lavandera has that timeline.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(Gunshots)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): This is the moment when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and wounded Wilber Garces Perez Sunday afternoon in Austin. But less than six minutes earlier, the 28-year-old Venezuelan immigrant had been stopped and pulled over by ICE officers. A source familiar with the incident tells CNN that Garces Perez fled the scene in his car.

New videos released by Austin police, along with surveillance videos obtained by CNN, help reveal some of the moments that led up to the shooting.

It's 12:44 p.m. The dashcam of an off-duty Austin police officer shows two ICE officers standing by the driver's side window of a blue Toyota sedan driven by Garces Perez. There are also two dark SUV's surrounding it. Right after this video is recorded, Garces Perez apparently fled the scene, sparking a chase in the surrounding neighborhood.

At 12:45 p.m., he's seen driving past a bingo hall about a half mile away with two black SUV's following behind him with their lights and sirens on. Seconds later, the chase passes a gas station, which again captures the two unmarked ICE vehicles still in pursuit. At 12:46 p.m., less than a minute later, the blue Toyota is seen again in the gas station surveillance video, but this time moving in a different direction. Two dark SUV's are still following closely as the pursuit crosses the intersection.

At 12:47 p.m., the blue Toyota passes the gas station a third time headed back toward its original direction. One dark SUV follows the car through the intersection. We don't see the second dark SUV this time. About 30 seconds later at 12:48 video shows the blue Toyota driving in the direction of a highway overpass -- one dark SUV in pursuit. Seconds later, a woman livestreaming on her phone captures the sounds of squealing tires and gunshots under the highway overpass.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God.

LAVANDERA (voiceover): On Monday, Garces Perez took questions from journalists by speakerphone while he was in detention in an ICE facility. This is what he said about what happened, according to a translator. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (translating): An SUV rode next to him and tried to hit him. He thought it was like an aggressive driver. It turns out it was not. He asked the ICE officer if he could please at least pull over so that they could detain him. They said no, and they sideswiped him basically. He did a U-turn to try and find a spot to park so that he could go with them, and they basically ran into him and then shot him.

LAVANDERA (voiceover): Questions remain over what happened in the gaps between the videos and what led the ICE officer to fire his weapon. The Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza says local investigators are requesting key pieces of video evidence from the Department of Homeland Security and interviews with the ICE officers at the scene. So far, Garza says DHS has not responded to those requests.

JOSE GARZA, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, TRAVIS COUNTY, TEXAS: There is a range of evidence that is in the possession of the federal government that would help local law enforcement officials assess whether or not there are any violations of state law and to help this community understand what may have transpired on Sunday.

LAVANDERA: We reached out to Wilber Garces Perez's lawyer to ask about why he fled the scene and the pursuit. We have not heard back. And the videos don't explain what happened in those final moments that compelled the ICE officer to fire his weapon.