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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN Headlines: Remembering The Events Of September 11, 2001; Trump, Vance Close Out Final Night Of RNC Convention; How Personal Bonds Shaped The 9/11 Memorial's Design. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired September 11, 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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[05:30:35]
BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: It's half past the hour. Let's hit the refresh button on our top stories.
Republicans wrapped up their two-night convention in Dallas, making their pitch for November's midterms and the future of the Republican Party. Vice President JD Vance gave the night's keynote address and other speakers leaned into issues like immigration and pushback on criticism of the economy under President Trump's nearly two years in office.
And former crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried is appealing his criminal fraud conviction to the Supreme Court, asking for a new trial and to throw out his $11 billion fine. Bankman-Fried was convicted and sentenced to 25 years-- that was back in 2024 -- for defrauding investors. The Supreme Court is expected to review the appeal later this year.
And September 11, 2001 -- it started out as a perfect morning but quickly spiraled into a day of chaos, confusion, and horror.
CNN's Jason Carroll walks through the timeline of how the attacks unfolded. We must warn you that these images from 9/11 may be difficult to see, whether this is your first time watching or a painful memory.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETTY ONG, FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Somebody's stabbed in business class. I don't know. I think we're getting hijacked.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): An emergency call from Betty Ong, a flight attendant on board American Airlines flight 11, scheduled to fly from Boston to Los Angeles. Ong is the first to alert ground operations a plane has been hijacked.
ONG: Our number one has been stabbed and our five has been stabbed.
CARROLL (voiceover): There are 76 passengers and 11 crew on board. Eight twenty-four a.m., air controllers in Boston pick up the voice of the lead hijacker, Mohamed Atta, from the cockpit as he makes an announcement to passengers.
BOSTON AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Is that American 11 trying to call?
MOHAMED ATTA, LEAD HIJACKER: (INAUDIBLE). We have some planes. Just stay quiet and we'll be okay.
CARROLL: Eight forty two a.m., United Airlines flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles, carrying 51 passengers and nine crew on board, is hijacked and turns towards New York City.
Eight forty-six a.m., the unimaginable happens to American Airlines flight 11.
FDNY: The whole outside of the building -- there was just a huge explosion. Send every available ambulance, everything you've got to the World Trade Center now.
CARROLL (voiceover): Smoke and flames shoot out from the building's 93rd and 99th floors.
CNN ANCHOR: This just in, you are looking at obviously a very disturbing live shot there. That is the World Trade Center, and we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center.
CARROLL (voiceover): America watches in horror, unsure if it's a tragic accident or something else.
JEANNE YURMAN, WITNESS: The side of the World Trade Center exploded right when I looked up, and at that point, debris started falling. I couldn't believe what I was watching.
CARROLL: Eight fifty-one a.m., American Airlines flight 77 from Dulles International Airport to Los Angeles becomes the third U.S. flight to be hijacked. Sixty-four are on board.
Air traffic controllers spot United flight 175 on an erratic course.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just a moment, we've got an explosion inside.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The building is exploding right now. You've got people running up the street.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know what's going on.
CARROLL (voiceover): Nine zero three a.m., the South Tower of the World Trade Center has been hit. Both Twin Towers now burning. First responders from across the city race downtown and into danger.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's play. Get ready.
CARROLL (voiceover): Nine zero five a.m., President George W. Bush is visiting second graders at a school in Florida and is told by his chief of staff America is under attack. Frantic calls from inside the Twin Towers flood 911 dispatch,
including one from Melissa Doi, a manager at a banking software company trapped on the cell tower's 83rd floor.
MELISSA DOI, TRAPPED ON 83RD FLOOR: We're on the floor and we can't breathe.
911: OK. Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm, stay calm. You're doing a good job, ma'am. You're doing a good job.
DOI: It's so hot. I'm burning up.
[05:35:00]
911: Hey, Melissa. Oh my God.
CARROLL (voiceover): Nine twenty-eight a.m., a fourth aircraft is hijacked, United flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco, with 33 passengers and seven crew members on board.
Nine thirty-seven a.m., an explosion is reported at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a large fire at the Pentagon. The Pentagon is being evacuated as we speak.
CARROLL (voiceover): American Airlines flight 77, which had taken off from Washington Dulles bound for Los Angeles, carrying 53 passengers, six crew, has crashed into the building's west side.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was like a cruise missile with wings went right there and slammed right into the Pentagon.
CARROLL (voiceover): Back in New York, the Twin Towers continued to burn in front of horrified onlookers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can see the people jumping out the window. They're jumping out the window right now. Oh my God.
CARROLL (voiceover): Nine fifty-five a.m., passengers on board United flight 93 have decided to try to take back the aircraft. An airphone operator on the line with passenger Todd Beamer later recounted his rallying cry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, AIRPHONE OPERATOR: And he turned to talk to someone else while the phone was still open, and he said, "You ready?" They must have responded to him. He said, "OK, let's roll."
CARROLL (voiceover): Nine fifty-nine a.m.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my gosh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is about as frightening a scene as you will ever see.
CARROLL (voiceover): The collapse of the South Tower of the World Trade Center shakes the ground and the nation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was one of the most horrific sights I've ever seen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The explosion shook the house clear over here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now we are getting a confirmation from United Airlines that its flight United 93 on the way to San Francisco has crashed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we looked up and we saw this huge airplane. It just looked like a big silver bomb.
CARROLL (voiceover): The passengers are later credited with taking down the hijackers before the aircraft could hit its intended target, either the nation's Capitol building or the White House.
Ten twenty-eight a.m., the North Tower, the first tower hit that morning, also collapses.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it's beyond words. It's horrifying. It's the worst thing that's ever happened. It's the most tragic thing that has happened to America by far.
CARROLL (voiceover): The World Trade Center is reduced to rubble, and much of downtown New York City is covered in debris and ash.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is just one of those awful moments that you need to look at for a minute or two to absorb exactly what has happened.
CARROLL (voiceover): Two thousand nine hundred seventy-seven lives have been lost.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SMITH: Solemn moments at the Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, to mark 25 years since the September 11th attacks. A wreath-laying ceremony was held there yesterday on the 184 illuminated memorial benches. They represent the 125 people inside the Pentagon and the 59 passengers and crew on American Airlines flight 77 who tragically lost their lives that day. Later this morning, President Trump will deliver remarks at a Pentagon ceremony.
Meanwhile, families are also gathering at the 9/11 Memorial in Manhattan. Each of the day's defining moments will be observed with a moment of silence.
The first 8:46 a.m. Eastern. That's when American Airlines flight 11 hit the North Tower. For the first time, about 12:30, a moment of silence will honor thousands who have died from 9/11-related illnesses in the years since the attacks. CNN will bring you each of those remembrances throughout the morning.
In one of the other major developments we are tracking today -- one of our top stories, in fact -- the final night of the RNC convention in Dallas. Thursday's speakers highlighted Trump's return to the White House and praised the president's achievements.
Vice President Vance was the night's keynote speaker, with shouts from the crowd pushing him to run in 2028. But for now, Vance's focus is on the midterms.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JD VANCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The contrast in this election, ladies and gentlemen -- it's not about this or that policy. It's about the party of common sense beating the party of the crazies. Let's send these lunatics packing and govern our country for the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: President Trump's speech raised eyebrows when he called for Republicans to "cheat like hell" to keep themselves in office during this closing address that he gave. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Please raise your right hand. I pledge --
[05:40:00]
CROWD: I pledge --
TRUMP: -- to the greatest president in the history of the United States that I will go out with my family, my friends -- I'll do it any way. I don't care if I'm registered or not, I'm gonna try and cheat like hell like they do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: To be clear, you cannot vote if you're not registered. Check with your state for its guidelines to sign up.
Jimmy Kimmel interviewed Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico, but you will not see it on TV. Instead, the late-night host posted it to YouTube. He's in a tight race against Texas Republican Ken Paxton, the state's attorney general.
Wednesday night, Kimmel revealed on "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!" that James Talarico's interview broadcast is being moved from ABC to YouTube. Kimmel explained the decision is due to concerns that a politically motivated FCC has threatened to ABC station licenses and FCC rules do not apply to YouTube.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, ABC'S "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!": This is not the first time you've been demoted to YouTube.
JAMES TALARICO, (D) TEXAS SENATE NOMINEE:
KIMMEL: When you were on Stephen Colbert's show --
TALARICO: That's right.
KIMMEL: -- this same -- very same thing happened. Why are they so scared of you?
TALARICO: Well, they're worried that we're going to win this race in Texas.
KIMMEL: It tickles me that it's -- that they're terrified of you. I mean, no offense but you look like Richie Cunningham. It's like --
TALARICO: I'm not very scary.
KIMMEL: You look like you're running for student council.
TALARICO: That's right. I don't -- I don't know what about this Boy Scout scares them so much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: The interview is now posted on the YouTube channel for "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!"
A California couple's surrogate is asking the Supreme Court to intervene in a custody battle over the four-week-old child who was born with a life-threatening heart defect. McKenna West filed the emergency appeal asking for final custody or conservatorship of the baby boy. She had refused to abort the child as the couple had wanted.
West was barred from having any contact with the infant. In court documents filed last month, the couple had called West "unstable" and accused her of trying to take their baby away. We'll continue to follow any developments there.
Next up on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, nearly two weeks after deadly flash floods in Nepal, the focus is shifting from rescue to recovery. The latest straight ahead.
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[05:46:50]
SMITH: Nearly 3,000 names are etched into the 9/11 memorial in New York City, but where those names appear was anything but random. Families, friends, coworkers, and first responders -- they fought to make sure that the people they lost would be remembered together. The result is a memorial designed not just to honor lives, but the relationships that defined them.
CNN's Coy Wire shows us how those bonds helped shape one of the nation's most meaningful memorials.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MONIKA IKEN-MURPHY, HUSBAND KILLED IN 9/11 ATTACKS: I was honored to be his wife. I would have died for him. If they thought they were gonna build over dead people, they would be taking me with them.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR (voiceover): Today, the 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero draws millions of visitors annually. But in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, public opinion was divided over the site's future. Some pushed to rebuild where the tower stood, while others fought to preserve the site where thousands died.
Among them was Monika Iken-Murphy, who lost her husband on 9/11 and became a leading voice in establishing the memorial. She says she watched on television as a plane hit the second tower -- the tower where her husband, Michael, worked on the 84th floor.
IKEN-MURPHY: I knew he was gone. I just -- I knew it. When you have a soul connection with someone, your brain says you're gonna look for him -- he could be a John Doe -- but your heart knows.
As soon as recovery was out, they were talking about rebuilding, that fast. And I was like there's no way they're gonna build it above you. And he said, "Oh, Monika, this is prime real estate. We're not -- we can't make this anything but a building."
At the end of the day, we fought for every square inch of this memorial. And I -- it took 10 years, you know, to get it done but we -- and it was a lot of fighting in between.
WIRE (voiceover): The design ultimately selected for the memorial "Reflecting Absence" was created by architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker. The arrangement of names is called "Meaningful Adjacencies," a flow of names that links coworkers to their friends, places plane seat mates near each other, and first responders among the people who they were believed to be trying to save.
Amanda Sachs-Mangold was the architect who collaborated with Michael Arad and spent years meticulously arranging the names around the pools.
WIRE: What was the reasoning? Like, why alphabetical order wasn't the way to organize those --
AMANDA SACHS-MANGOLD, 9/11 MEMORIAL ARCHITECT AND COLLABORATOR: Well --
WIRE: -- nearly 3,000 names? Why was that?
SACHS-MANGOLD: Um, there were a few reasons. The first reason for not wanting to do it alphabetically was simply because of the repetition of last names. There were 11 Murphys, two Patrick Murphys. There were nine Kellys, 12 Lynchs. There were two people that shared a name, Michael Francis Lynch -- two people -- two distinct people.
[05:50:13]
When you start organizing by alphabetical order, you lose the individuality of people, and that was very important. WIRE (voiceover): Sachs-Mangold conducted extensive research, speaking with people by phone, searching online, and contacting organizations to determine how victims knew one another and whose names should be placed together.
WIRE: And what was it like for you personally hearing some of those stories and fielding some of those requests?
SACHS-MANGOLD: It was emotional. It was hard. And there were many, sort of, let's say naysayers who didn't believe it was possible. There was a feeling that it wouldn't be feasible to do without technological help. I mean, obviously we work digitally as well, but we organized it with our human brains. You know, these are human stories and they were done by humans. as well. WIRE (voiceover): The structure of names also allows for a gathering of those mourning, so the loved ones of a victim who visit the memorial can be nearby other grieving loved ones who are only a degree or two of separation away.
JAMES DOWDELL, LIEUTENANT, FDNY: My name is James Dowdell. I'm a lieutenant on the FDNY. And I am the son of Kevin Dowdell, who was one of the 343 New York City firemen killed on September 11.
The crew and the people that my father responded here with, they're all next to each other. Them all together it just -- you know, it -- that's how I remember them. I just remember them all being together. I remember them sitting around the table laughing with each other. So when I come here and I see those names in the same -- you know, next to each other just like they were sitting around the kitchen table, you know, there's definitely a sense of resolve there. I think it's a true testament to who they were and how they got here and how they died, so I think it's fitting.
IKEN-MURPHY: This is a sacred and hallowed space, and that's why it's so important that we make sure that people understand how amazing this memorial is and how, you know, the fight was worth it, because I don't have him today, but I have him here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SMITH: Thank you, Coy, for bringing us that. I really appreciate it.
Lots more to get to. Let's go around the globe to see what else is making headlines today.
The U.S. is stepping up military support for Saudi Arabia in its fight against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. More than 100 U.S. military advisors are in Saudi Arabia providing intelligence and support for Saudi airstrikes against the Houthis.
Fighting has intensified in recent days, and on Thursday, the Houthis captured the strategic port city of Mocha on Yemen's Red Sea coast. Control of that port could help the group threaten the Bab-al-Mandab Strait, a key shipping lane and crucial alternative to the Strait of Hormuz. And in Nepal, workers in protective suits carry the bodies of
unidentified victims in preparation for mass burials. At least 1,300 people are confirmed dead in last month's tragedy, and more than 5,300 people are still missing across Nepal and China's Tibet region.
Still to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, a popular restaurant chain abruptly shuts down all of its locations across the U.S. We've got details on that coming up.
Plus, what the DEA agents found hidden inside this head of cabbage. You don't want to miss this story. That's coming up next.
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[05:58:05]
SMITH: Au revoir for now. Restaurant chain O'Charley's has abruptly shut down all 52 of its locations nationwide. There was no public announcement of the closure, but the company also disabled all of its website and all of its social media accounts. The Nashville, Tennessee restaurant chain first opened in 1971.
Let's get a check in on some of the other stories making news across the country.
In Alaska, a tragic family fishing trip has left two teens dead and another one recovering. The Coast Guard rescued a 15-year-old boy who was found sitting on top of an 18-foot boat that was capsized near St. Lawrence Island. Officials say that he was stranded for hours in cold waters and was treated for hypothermia. The bodies of the two other boys were also recovered. They were the brother and cousin of the survivor.
And talk about a stuffed cabbage, a drug bust in Texas -- it found more than 2,000 pounds of meth hidden in a shipment of cabbage. The DEA, FBI, and Border Patrol were all involved. No details were given on any arrests.
We take you now to Ohio. That's where dashcam video shows a wild scene. A man took police not on one pursuit, but two. Authorities say in the middle of the first pursuit, the suspect stole a police cruiser and then crashed it into a house.
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Police cruiser crashing into house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Two people inside the home were injured. Authorities say that the suspect then attacked an officer and bit him before being taken into custody. Police say the man was already a suspect in other crimes, including homicide. He now faces a slew of new charges.
[06:00:00] We want to leave you with this special tribute that took shape in the skies over New York this week. Hundreds of drones recreated the outline of the twin towers in a display called "2,977 Lights" -- one light for every person killed in the September 11 attacks.
That does it for CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. I'm Brad Smith. "CNN THIS MORNING WITH AUDIE CORNISH" starts right now.
